Skip to main content

Full text of "Journal of early southern decorative arts [serial]"

See other formats 


JOURNAL  OF   EARLY 
SOUTHERN  DECORATIVE  ARTS 

SUMMER    I  ^)  9  5         V  GLUME    XXI.    NUMBER    I 


THE    MUSEUM    OF    EARLY    SOUTHERN    DECORATIVE    ARTS 


EDITORIAL     BOARD 

Henr\'  Parrott  Bacot,  Louisiaiui  State  Uiiivcfsity  Mnseiou  of  Art,  Baton  Rouge 

John  A.  Burrison,  Georgia  State  University',  At/anta 

Colleen  Callahan,  \'a/entiiie  Mitseioii,  Richnio)iel.  I'irgiiiia 

Barbara  Carson,  College  of  William  and  Mary,  Williamsburg,  Virginia 

Bernard  D.  Cotton,  Buekitighamshire  College.  United  Kingdom 

Donald  L.  Fennimore,  Jr.,  Winterthur  Museum,  Winterthur,  Delaware 

Leland  Ferguson,  University  of  South  Carolina,  Columbia 

Edward  G.  Hill,  M.D.,  Winston-Salem,  North  Carolina 

Ronald  L.  Hurst,  Colonial  Willia))isburg  Foundation,  WilLunsburg,  X'irgiuia 

Theodore  Landsmark,  Mayor's  Office,  City  of  Boston,  Massachusetts 

Carl  R.  Lounsbury,  Colonial  Williantsburg  Foundation,  Willamsburg,  Virginia 

Susan  H.  Mvers,  National  Museum  of  A>ner/ca?i  History,  Smithsonian  Institution.  Washington,  D.C. 

J.  Garrison  Stradling,  New  York,  New  York 

Carolyn  J.  Weekley,  Abby  Aldrich  Rockefeller  Folk  Art  Center,  Colonial  Williamsburg  Foundation, 

Willamsburg,  \  'irginia 

GENERAL    EDITOR:    Bradford  L.  Rauschenberg 

MANAGING    EDITOR:    Cornelia  B.  Wright 

MEMBERSHIP     IN     M  E  S  D  A 

Members  ot  MESDA  receive  the  louriial  of  F.arly  Southern  Decorative  Arts,  published  in  summer  and  \vm- 
ter,  and  the  MESDA  newsletter,  Ihc  Limiiiiary.  published  in  sprint;  and  fall.  Other  privileges  include  notifi- 
cation ot  the  classes,  programs,  and  lectures  offered  b\  the  Museum;  participation  in  Membets'  Weekend, 
with  a  symposium  on  collecting  and  decotative  arts  research;  a  lO""  discount  on  purchases  from  the  MESDA 
Bookstore  and  Old  Salem  stotes;  and  tree  admission  to  general  tours  ot  MESDA  and  Old  Salem. 

Membership  categories  begin  at  SiO.oo.  Librar\-  subscriptions  are  S2vOO  (o\-ersecs  members  please  add 
$10.00  for  postage).  For  further  inhirmation  about  ioining  Meiubets  of  MESDA  and  benefits  of  membership, 
please  write  the  Coordinator  ot  Membership  Services,  MESDA,  P.O.  Bo.x  10310,  Winston-Salem,  NC  27108. 


Coxcr  Illustration:  B,-n,,„yJ  Moll.  Ms,  \.in  Rlicin  Ironi  AnistcrJ.im  in  t;hjrlston.  From  „>l  ,lthum  of  illhouertfi  by  Moll.  Royal  Ontaru 
Mmcin,,.  Inromn.  Canada  Aca-.iwn  ttQS4A^-  l    Cufl  of  John  .■\ndre- 


THE  JOURNAL 

OF  EARLY  SOUTHERN 

DECORATIVE  ARTS 


SUMMER    1995 
VOLUME    XXI,     NUMBER    I 


The  Journal  of  Early  Southern  Decorative  Arts  is  published  rwice 

a  vcar  by  the  Museum  of  Early  Southern  Decorative  Arts  (MESDA). 

It  presents  research  on  decorative  arts  made  in  the  South  prior  to  1820. 

with  an  emphasis  on  object  studies  m  a  material  culture  context. 

Potential  contributors  are  encouraged  to  contact  the  Managing  Editor 
for  guidelines  concerning  subject  matter  and  manuscript  preparation. 

All  correspondence  concerning  the  Journal  should  be  sent  to  the 

Managing  Editor,  Jourtial  of  Early  Southern  Decorative  Am,  MESDA, 

P.O.  Box  10310,  Winston-Salem,  NC  27108.  Correspondence  concerning 

membership  in  MESDA,  including  renewals  and  address  changes. 

should  be  directed  to  the  Coordinator  of  Membership  Services, 

MESDA,  P.O.  Box  10310,  Winston-Salem,  NC  27108. 

Articles  from  the  Journal  of  Early  Southern  Decorative  Am  are  abstracted 
in  the  Bibliography  of  the  History  of  Art  and  America:  History  and  Life. 


The  paper  used  for  this  publication  meets  the  minimum  American 

National  Standard  for  information  Sciences — Peimanence  of  Paper  for 

Printed  Libran'  .Materials,  ansi  z39.48-1984.00TM  ^rij  contains  20% 

post-consumer  hber. 

Some  back  issues  ot  tUe  Journal  ate  available. 

ISSN  0098-92(16 

Copyright  ©  199s  by  Old  Salem,  Inc. 

Designed  and  t>'peset  in  Adobe  Garamond  by  Kachergis  Book  Design, 

Pittsboro,  North  Carolina 

Printed  in  the  United  States  of  .America 


Contents 


Charleston's  Drawing  Master  Bernard  Albrecht  Moll 
and  the  South  Carolina  Expedition  oi  Emperor  Joseph  ii 
of  Austria 

HELENE    M.     KASTINGER    RILEY 


Research  Notes 

New  Discoveries  in  a  Piedmont  North  Carolina 
Chest-on-Frame  Group 

BRADFORD    L.     RAUSCHENBERG 


Book  Reviews 

James  Horn,  Adapting  to  a  New  World:  English  Society 
in  the  Seventeenth-Century  Chesapeake 

BARBARA    CARSON  95 

Stanley  South,  Pioneers  in  Historical  Archaeology: 
Breaking  Neiv  Ground. 

J  .     NED    WOODALL  98 


rr^     ^-r—  ■♦— 


ART'-  of  D"R  AWTNG- 
Ber  nard  Moil  f  la  tei  y  from  Vienn  a^ 

nEQlTESrS  leaYsto  Infornl  rhe  Ladiea  and  Gentle- 
^  men  of  this  Citj?,  thatiie  has  undertaken  to  teacfe 

ib'.at  nl^Ci.ll'iry  arc6m'plifhnie.nt, 

'The  kri  of  Dr awing ^    ,,'... 

\' In -.^0  its  branches.  .  .,  .%4.\  ., 
He  \H\\tn  hirnrdf'ilflom'tJVe  attention  vvjilcb.he  Ijialf 
obfervi)  to' thofe  vv'hpin  lie  Uas  the  honour  of  in- 
ltfu6V;ng,-  that  vvr^h'ap'plic'afioti  they  will  in  a  fhort 
tirne->hecOTlieiproiiorai!t8.— Profiles  dose  in  the  aaoft 
ex:).^  manner,  ol^  all Tizes,  No-  3?,  Btoad  ftteet;     ■• ' 


I.  Bernard MoU'i  first  Charleston  advertisement  offering  his  services  as  drawing 
master  and  profile  cutter.  South  Carolina  State  Gazette  and  General  Advertiser 
November  25,  1784.  i-^. 


Charleston's  Drawing  Master 

Bernhard  Albrecht  Moll  and  the 

South  Carolina  Expedition  of 

Emperor  Joseph  II  of  Austria 

HELENE    M.     KASTINGER    RILEY 


ON  NOVEMBER  12,  1788,  The  City  Gazette  or  The  Daily 
Advertiser  of  Charleston,  South  Carolina,  carried  a  notice 
that  the  remaining  effects  of  the  late  Mr.  Bernard  Moll 
were  to  be  sold  at  public  auction,  including  "a  tame  milch  cow  used 
to  the  town,"  a  number  of  pictures,  "a  variety  ot  water  colours,  and 
sundry  instruments  proper  for  a  drawing  master."'  The  inventory  of 
Moll's  possessions  made  some  months  later  by  Serjeant  &  Cam- 
bridge shows  the  deceased  to  be  a  man  of  culture  and  some  modest 
means  to  indulge  his  favorite  pastimes:  he  played  chess,  loved  and 
collected  books,  smoked  a  pipe,  enjoyed  an  occasional  bottle  ol 
wine,  and  perhaps  went  hunting  to  put  meat  on  his  table.-  He  had 
carpenter's  tools  and  the  frames,  pencils,  paints,  and  brushes  used  in 
his  trade.  Beyond  this,  little  is  known  about  this  man  who  had  a 
most  interesting  and  adventurous  life  before  becoming  "Drawing 
Master"  in  Charleston.' 

The  only  tangible  evidence  of  his  art  in  Charleston  is  an  album  of 
exquisitely  cut  profiles  that  has  its  own  remarkable  history.  Eight 


days  after  Moll  arrived  in  Philadelphia  as  the  artist  of  an  Austrian 
scientific  expedition  he  wrote  a  letter  to  his  friend.  Count  Ignaz  von 
Born  in  Vienna,  describing  his  transatlantic  voyage.  After  discussing 
a  number  ot  illustrations  he  had  made  of  marine  fauna  in  his  official 
capacity,  Moll  mentions  that  he  "could  also  make  a  good  bit  of  mon- 
ey with  silhouettes"  and  that  he  already  had  "a  collection  of  civilized 
American  faces."'  This  letter,  dated  September  17,  1783,  and  dis- 
cussed in  greater  detail  below,  contains  the  first  reference  to  the 
more  than  two  dozen  Philadelphia  profiles  in  the  album  and  serves 
to  confirm  Moll's  authorship.  His  use  of  the  word  "silhouette" — a 
term  not  commonly  applied  in  English  prior  to  1796 — and  his  com- 
ment that  "there  are  few  artists  here  and  none  in  my  field"  are  inter- 
esting in  light  of  the  popularity  of  the  medium.'  If  his  assessment  is 
correct — and  MESDA  research  files  show  no  other  Charleston  artist 
cutting  profiles  before  1804 — it  may  explain  his  popularity  and  im- 
mediate acceptance  as  an  artist,  both  in  the  Northeast  and  later  in 
Charleston. 

The  more  than  seventy  silhouettes  oi  Charleston  personalities  re- 
produced here  for  the  first  time  are  clearly  the  most  important  in  the 
album.  They  were  cut  after  Moll  moved  to  Charleston  in  December 
1783,  and  portray  members  ot  the  city's  most  eminent  families.  This 
confirms  Moll's  claim  in  his  advertisement  in  the  City  Gitzetteoi  No- 
vember 19,  1787,  that  his  skill  was  supported  by  well-known  patrons. 
Today,  few  silhouettes  from  Charleston  remain  and  even  fewer  are 
attributable  to  specific  artists,  which  makes  the  survival  of  Moll's 
profiles  even  more  significant." 

The  odyssey  of  this  little  album  is  in  itself  noteworthy.  Credit  for 
having  saved  Moll's  work  is  due  the  Canadian  John  Andre,  who  in 
the  mid-1960s  was  researching  the  painter  William  Berczy  for  a  cen- 
tennial project  of  the  Borough  of  York,  Ontario.  Berczy  was  co- 
founder  of  the  city  of  Toronto  and,  as  Andre  discovered,  christened 
Johann  Albrecht  Ulrich  Moll;  he  was  the  younger  brother  of  Bern- 
hard  Albrecht  Moll.   The  result  of  Andre's  research  was  his  "Sketch" 


JOURNAL    OF    EARLY    SOUTHERN    DECORATIVE    ARTS  SUMMER    I995 


of  William  Berczy,  published  in  1967,  in  which  he  also  mentions 
Bernhard  Moll's  profiles: 

1  have  just  found  his  picuirial  diary,  an  album  of  silhouettes  containing 
150  profiles  which  include  the  Emperor,  Born,  various  friends  and  his 
mother  and  three  sisters.  The  remainder  are  American  personalities  be- 
tween 1783-1785.  His  whereabouts,  probably  under  an  assumed  name, 
from  1786  until  his  death,  perhaps  near  Boston,  remains  a  mystery." 

Andre  purchased  the  album  at  a  Mr.  Howe's  antique  shop  in  Ware, 
Massachusetts,  and  presented  it  to  the  Canadiana  Collection  oi  the 
Royal  Ontario  Museum  in  Toronto  where  it  is  now  located.  In  an 
article  published  ten  years  later,  Andre  was  able  to  provide  addition- 
al information  on  the  album's  travels:  Mr.  Howe  had  bought  it  from 
a  Mr.  Coffin,  dealer  in  old  books  and  antiques,  "who  in  turn  had 
bought  it  a  long  time  ago'  in  Boston  from  another  antiquarian.  Mr. 
Howe  rebound  the  disintegrating  book,  which  had  meanwhile  lost  a 
few  pages  containing  at  least  six  silhouettes  from  Charleston."" 

Yet  the  album  held  still  another  secret  of  which  Andre  was  un- 
aware: although  there  is  no  doubt  that  Moll  produced  the  profiles, 
including  among  them  members  oi  his  tamily  and  the  expedition, 
the  album  itself  most  likely  did  not  belong  to  him  but  to  the  expedi- 
tion's leader  Franz  Joseph  Marter.  The  individual  silhouettes  were 
collected  between  1783  and  1785,  subjects  identified,  pages  num- 
bered, and  a  three-page  index  added.  All  these  details  are  in  Matter's 
handwriting,  as  a  comparison  with  his  travel  journals  shows.  Marter 
also  provided  the  captions  to  the  silhouettes,  spelling  names  phonet- 
ically in  the  manner  oi  one  whose  English  is  flawed:  Betsy  becomes 
Petsi,  Beresford '\s  spelled  Birisford,  etc.  Marter's  idiosyncratic  spelling 
is  also  evident  in  the  alternation  between  Philadelphia  and  Phyladel- 
phia,  between  s  and  f — a  habit  also  retained  in  his  journal — and  in 
the  abbreviations  for  Miss  and  Mrs.,  sometimes  misspelled,  some- 
times variously  rendered  in  French  as  Mm-,  Mad—,  or  Md'.  A  very 
few  profiles  are  labeled  in  a  handwriting  different  from  Marter's  (Mr. 


CHARLESTON    S    DRAWING    MASTER    BERNARD    ALBRECHT    MOLL 


George  Hall,  Mr.  Charles  Brown,  Mr.  Daniel  Wilson,  Mr.  Beach); 
the  writer  is  unknown.  The  untitled  profile  on  page  83  verso  with 
the  characteristic  Moll  nose  and  chin  that  Andre  identifies  as  Bern- 
hard  Moll  might  also  be  Moll's  brother  Albrecht,  whom  Matter  did 
not  know.'" 

Many  problems  and  misconceptions  remain  despite  Andres  pio- 
neering work.  Some  of  them  are  based  on  Andre's  incomplete 
knowledge  of  Moll's  life  and  his  relationship  to  other  expedition 
members,  especially  Marter;  others  are  of  Andre's  own  making." 
Also,  the  lack  of  illustrations  diminishes  the  usefulness  of  Andre's 
descriptions  of  Moll's  art.  Given  the  importance  oi  Charleston  as  a 
center  for  the  arts  in  the  eighteenth  century,  coupled  with  the  sur- 
prising dearth  of  extant  profiles  from  the  era,  the  publication  of 
Moll's  Charleston  silhouettes  becomes  highly  desirable.  The  differ- 
ent aspects  of  Moll's  life  and  work  are  presented  here  in  three  dis- 
tinct sections.  A  discussion  oi  Moll's  European  background,  his 
training,  participation  in  the  expedition,  and  final  settlement  in 
Charleston  where  he  worked  and  taught  until  his  death  in  1788 
forms  the  basic  introduction  to  this  virtually  unknown  artist.  It  is 
followed  by  a  concise  description  oi  the  album  and  its  artistic  signifi- 
cance as  the  major  source  of  his  work,  including  a  discussion  of  sub- 
jects and  style  of  the  profiles.  The  reproduction  of  Moll's  hitherto 
unpublished  Charleston  silhouettes.  Matter's  index,  and  an  accurate 
transcription  of  the  index  to  the  album,  conclude  the  presentation  of 
this  Charleston  artist. 


MOLL    S     EARLY    YEARS 

Bernardus  Albrechtus  de  Moll  was  baptized  on  November  25, 
1743,  at  St.  Albans  in  Wallerstein,  Germany,  as  the  oldest  son  of  Al- 
brecht Theodor  von  Moll  (1713-1772),'-  a  descendant  of  four  genera- 
tions of  Lutheran  pastors  and  civil  servants  in  communities  around 
Nordlingen,  Germany  (Bavaria).  The  elder  Moll  broke  with  family 


JOURNAL    OF    E.'\RLY    SOUTHERN    DECORATIVE    ARTS  SUMMER    1995 


tradition  when  he  married  Johanna  Haftel  (1719-1792),  Catholic 
daughter  oi  the  vice-prefect  of  Ottingen,  on  January  8,  1742."  At  the 
time  Moll  was  aulic  councillor,  or  legal  adviser,  at  the  Ottingen- 
Wallerstein  court  after  having  served  the  counts  of  Ottingen-Waller- 
stein  first  as  secretary  of  state,  then  as  cabinet  secretary.  Shortly  be- 
fore Christmas  1745,  Count  Philipp  Cad  of  Ottingen-Wallerstein 
accredited  him  as  his  representative  (Reichshofraths-Agent)  to  the 
Imperial  Aulic  Council"  in  Vienna,  and  Albrecht  Theodor  moved 
his  family  from  Wallerstein  to  Vienna.  There,  in  accordance  with  the 
practice  oi  the  time,  he  became  an  agent  for  additional  small  territo- 
ries. Between  1742  and  1759  the  couple  had  twelve  children,  of  whom 
at  least  four  sons  were  baptized  Lutheran  and  all  the  daughters  Cath- 
olic. Although  he  was  dismissed  in  1755  as  the  agent  of  Count  Ottin- 
gen-Wallerstein," the  family  cominued  to  live  in  ambassadorial 
style.'" 

In  Germany  and  Austria,  the  Age  ot  Reason  was  at  hand:  religious 
tolerance  had  become  a  virtue,  the  educated  elite  succeeded  in  dent- 
ing rigid  class  barriers,  the  desire  to  explore  the  unknown  and  the 
exotic  gave  rise  to  numerous  expeditions  to  foreign  continents,  and 
the  wish  to  appear  learned  resulted  in  the  establishment  of  exhibit 
"cabinets" — from  modest  bourgeois  collections  to  princely  musums. 
Albrecht  Theodor  Moll's  Naturalienkabinett,  an  eight-thousand- 
item  collection  oi  mineral  curiosities,  was  internationally  re- 
nowned,'" as  was  his  brother  Bernhard  Pauls  monumental  collection 
of  thirteen  thousand  geographical  maps  called  "Atlas  Austriacus," 
now  in  the  library  of  the  University  at  Brno  in  the  Czech  Republic. 

Surrounded  by  this  atmosphere  of  intellectual  competition  and 
social  upward  mobility,  Bernhard  Albrecht  Moll  (1743-1788)  grew 
up  in  the  cultural  capital  of  Europe,  Empress  Maria  Theresa's  Vien- 
na. In  1762  Bernhard  and  his  brother  Johann  Albrecht  (1744-1813) 
commenced  studying  at  the  Vienna  Academy  of  Fine  Arts  and  then 
completed  their  education  in  Germany,  registering  on  October  9, 
1766,  at  the  Friedrich  Schiller  University  in  Jena.'" 


CHARLESTON    S    DRAWING    MASTER    BERNARD    ALBRECHT    MOLL 


Among  Bernhards  friends  was  Count  Ignaz  von  Born  (1742- 
1791),  who  considered  himself  a  student  of  the  elder  Moll  and 
frequently  visited  the  Moll  home  and  Naturalienkabinett.  Von 
Born  was  a  metallurgist  and  mineralogist  by  profession  and  only 
a  year  older  than  Bernhard.  In  his  published  letters  of  1770  he 
writes,  "I  go  zealously  to  our  friend  Herrn  Reichsagent  von  Moll.  I 
have  spent  three  days  examining  his  well-chosen  collection  of  miner- 
als, which  is  especially  rich  in  petrified  objects.  The  informative  re- 
marks that  he  makes  regarding  each  object  serve  me  as  well  as  a  for- 
mal lecture  and  please  me  greatly."'"  Von  Born  was  Hofrat  (literally 
"court  counsellor";  an  upper-level  government  official  or  administra- 
tor) at  the  Imperial  Chamber  for  Minting  and  Mining,  as  well  as  the 
leader  of  the  influential  Freemasons  of  Vienna.  He  is  said  to  have 
been  the  model  for  Mozart's  high  priest  in  the  Magic  Flute.-"  As 
Bernhard  s  friend,  von  Born  became  a  powerful  mentor  of  his  career 
in  Vienna  and  in  a  position  to  assure  Bernhard  of  a  comfortable  ex- 
istence. 

Then  a  number  of  setbacks  occurred  to  change  the  course  oi 
Bernhard's  life.  His  father  died  on  June  14,  1772,''  leaving  his  mother 
to  provide  for  four  children  who  were  not  yet  ot  age."  Many  of  the 
territories  Albrecht  Theodor  had  represented  at  the  Imperial  Aulic 
Council  never  paid  for  his  services  or  were  slow  in  doing  so,  and  the 
famous  Naturalienkabinett  and  concomitant  library  turned  out  to 
be  his  chief  legacy  to  his  family."'  Johanna  Moll  found  herself  virtu- 
ally penniless  until  Empress  Maria  Theresa  granted  her  an  annual 
pension  of  200  gulden  in  October  1777,  citing  her  loyalty  to  the 
Catholic  Church  and  her  great  need.-'  The  older  sons  were  expected 
to  help  support  the  family.  Bernhard  apparently  served  for  some 
time  as  Aulic  Councillor-agent,  with  the  title  Hofrat,  for  the  Duke 
of  Mecklenburg-Strelitz,-'  but  then  entered  the  Imperial  Military 
Academy  as  a  cadet  in  the  von  Lattermann  infantry  regiment.  How- 
ever, while  still  a  cadet  young  Bernhard  came  down  with  a  "protract- 
ed illness"  and  suffered,  according  to  a  letter  from  the  Chief  Cham- 


JOURNAL    OF    EARLY    SOUTHERN    DECORATIVE    ARTS  SUMMER    I995 


berlain  to  Emperor  Joseph  II,  a  "chest  detect,  rendering  him  disabled 
for  further  military  service."-" 

In  the  spring  ol  1780  Bernhard  Moll  petitioned  the  Imperial 
Court  for  the  position  ol  Kaiserlicher  und  Koniglicher  Kabinett- 
Maler,  or  Imperial  Cabinet  Painter,  which  was  vacated  by  the  recent 
death  of  Franz  Joseph  von  Widon.  This  position  carried  a  stipend 
and  was  a  valuable  endorsement  of  an  artist's  skill.  On  March  30, 
1780,  Chief  Chamberlain  Count  von  Rosenberg  informed  the  Em- 
press that  Moll  had  appended  to  his  petition  several  sample  draw- 
ings of  natural  objects  which  Rosenberg  had  forwarded  to  Ignaz  von 
Born  for  an  expert  opinion.  Von  Born  gave  Moll  an  excellent  recom- 
mendation, calling  Moll's  drawings  superior  to  any  already  owned 
by  the  Imperial  Cabinet.  With  this  superb  testimonial  in  hand, 
Rosenberg  wrote  to  the  Empress,  "Since  not  the  least  fault  can  be 
found  regarding  the  supplicant's  skill,  and  since  it  would  be  a  great 
support  to  his  poor  and  distressed  mother,  burdened  with  many 
children,  if  he  were  to  receive  the  desired  favor,  I  can  only  recom- 
mend in  all  submissiveness  to  the  superior  benevolence  of  Your 
Majesty  the  granting  of  his  most  humble  petition.  "-'Maria  Theresa 
granted  the  plea,  and  on  April  2,  1780,  Johann  Michael  Edier  von 
Mayr,  Imperial  purser,  was  advised  by  Joseph  II  to  pay  Moll  as  suc- 
cessor to  Widon  the  annual  salary  of  800  gulden.  On  the  same  date 
an  elaborate  decree  signed  by  Rosenberg  was  sent  to  Moll,  advising 
him  of  the  positive  Imperial  response  to  his  petition  because  of  his 
excellent  work  "in  the  art  of  drawing  and  painting"  and  the  "re- 
spectable and  virtuous  conduct  of  his  life."  He  was  also  admonished 
to  go  about  his  work  with  diligence  and  conscientiousness,  and  ad- 
vised that  the  decree  was  offered  "to  document  Her  Imperial 
Majesty's  grace  toward  him,  on  behalf  of  which  he  could  and  should 
enjoy  the  freedoms  and  prerogatives,  rights  and  justifications  of  an 
Imperial-Royal  Cabinet  Painter."-" 

These  documents  are  cited  here  at  some  length  to  show  the  rigid 
protocol  at  the  Imperial  court  of  Vienna,  the  good  standing  of  Bern- 


CHARLESTON    S    DRAWING    MASTER    BERNARD    ALBRECHT    MOLL 


hard  Moll's  family  in  high  society,  the  great  influence  of  his  friends, 
and  the  fact  that  he  was  perceived  as  the  best  artist  in  his  field  at  the 
time.-'' The  title  "K.K.  Kabinett-Maler"  provided  Moll  not  only  with 
a  stable  position  and  income,  but  also  with  an  influx  ot  paying 
pupils  and  the  prestige  a  court-affiliated  painter  enjoyed.  It  is  sur- 
prising, given  his  status,  that  only  one  work  by  Moll  from  Vienna 
can  be  identified.  A  drawing  he  made  of  a  house  and  courtyard  in 
Vienna's  Alserbach  district  survives  in  an  engraving  by  H.  Amon  of 
1780,  titled  "Prospect  am  Alsterbach  hinter  den  Invaliden  in  der  Al- 
stergasse  in  Wien"  (View  of  the  Alster  brook  behind  the  Invaliden  in 
Alster  Lane).  The  engraving  accompanies  Moll's  advertisement  in 
Vienna's  Realzeitung  oder  Beytrdge  und  Anzeigen  von  Gelehrten  und 
Kunstsachoi  in  which  he  offers  a  series  of  his  landscape  engravings 
for  sale  by  subscription."'  It  depicts  a  house  in  a  fenced  courtyard, 
beyond  which  two  church  steeples  can  be  seen.  Two  children,  a  boy 
and  a  girl  awkwardly  reduced  in  scale,  are  fighting  in  the  lore- 
ground.  They  are  placed  there  almost  as  an  afterthought  and  season 
the  depicted  peacefulness  of  an  idyllic  summer  day  in  the  country 
with  stark  realism.  The  two  church  steeples  and  the  fighting  children 
can  be  interpreted  as  a  symbolic  representation  ot  Moll  family  ten- 
sions: dual  confessions,  split  along  gender  lines. 


THE    AMERICAN     EXPEDITION 

Bernhard  Moll  had  been  Cabinet  painter  less  than  two  years 
when  Emperor  Joseph  II,  sole  and  absolute  ruler  over  the  huge  Habs- 
burg  Empire  since  his  mother's  death  in  1780,  decided  to  outfit  an 
expedition  to  exotic  places  to  enlarge  and  restock  the  botanical  and 
zoological  gardens  at  his  summer  residence  of  Schonbrunn."  The 
palace,  now  open  to  the  public,  was  built  to  rival  Versailles  and  was 
surrounded  by  extensive  formal  gardens,  a  large  hunting  reserve,  and 
technologically  sophisticated  greenhouses,  aviaries,  and  a  zoo. 
Through  a  gardener's  carelessness,  however,  a  large  number  of  tropi- 


JOURNAL    OF    EARLY    SOUTHERN    DECORATIVE    ARTS  SUMMER    1995 


cal  plants  that  had  been  collected  on  an  earlier  expedition  by  Nico- 
laus  Joseph  Jacquin"  froze  in  one  of  Schonbrunn's  greenhouses. 
Originally  von  Born  was  to  organize  and  lead  the  expedition,  but  he 
withdrew  because  of  ill  health.  Instead,  he  and  Jacquin  were  entrust- 
ed with  the  selection  of  the  expeditions  personnel,  reporting  directly 
to  Vice  Chancellor  Count  von  Cobenzl. 

Franz  Joseph  Marter  (fig.  2)  was  chosen  to  go  west  as  the  leader  of 
the  American  (West  Indies)  expedition.  He  was  professor  of  natural 
history  and  economics  at  the  Theresianum,"  a  Freemason,  and  a 
man  with  a  difficult  personality.  Karl  Haidinger,  Assistant  Director 
at  the  Imperial  Naturalienkabinet  and  the  second  team  member,  was 
originally  selected  to  go  to  Asia  (India).  When  Moll  heard  about  the 
Imperial  mission,  he  again  petitioned  the  Emperor.  His  undated  let- 
ter, signed  "Bernhard  Albrecht  Moll,  former  cabinet  painter,"  asks 
permission  to  join  the  expedition  as  a  painter  of  natural  objects  in 
return  for  "merely  the  necessary  living  expenses.""  His  argument  is 
persuasive.  He  claims  that  his  varied  skills  include  the  portrayal  of 
natural  objects,  landscapes,  and  geographical  drawings,  and  that 
without  an  accompanying  artist,  many  interesting  plants  and  objects 
the  expedition  might  encounter  would  remain  undescribed  and  un- 
depicted,  and  "the  goals  of  His  Majesty  might  be  achieved  more  ful- 
ly if  a  greater  abundance  of  natural  objects  became  known."  Finally, 
he  says,  "it  had  been  his  great  desire  since  childhood  to  go  on  such  a 
journey  and  he  also  possessed  the  requisite  health  and  physical 
strength  for  it."'' 

In  view  of  his  earlier  dismissal  from  the  Military  Academy  for  rea- 
sons of  health,  his  last  statement  seems  overly  optimistic.  Neverthe- 
less, Ignaz  von  Born  supported  his  choice.  In  a  memo  of  June  29, 
1782,  von  Born  reports: 

Since  I  know  that  His  Majesty  is  not  averse  to  the  idea  that  the  two  sci- 
entists separate  and  later  unite  at  the  Cape  [of  Good  Hope],  I  have  har- 
bored the  wish  that  a  subject  [of  His  Majesty]  trained  in  drawing  and 
painting  be  permitted  to  accompany  and  assist  the  one  ot  these  two 


CHARLESTON    S    DRAWING    MASTER    BERNARD    ALBRECHT    MOLL 


2.  Bt-nidid  Moll,  Mr.  Maerter.  Franz  Joseph  Marter.  the  leader 
of  Joseph  II's  American  expedition  (p.  i<)r).  178}.  The  profiles 
from  Moll's  album  are  reproduced  with  permission  from  the 
Royal  Ontario  Museum.  Toronto,  Canada.  Accession  1)984. 1'^J.i. 
Gift  of  John  Andre. 


JOURNAL    OF    EARLY    SOUTHERN    DECORATIVE    ARTS 


SUMMER    199'i 


[Marter]  who  is  not  skilled  in  drawing.  Bernard  Moll,  previously  em- 
ployed in  the  Imperial  Naturalienkabinet  with  no  equal  in  the  field,  an 
unmarried,  healthy  man  ot  about  30  years,  wishes  nothing  more  fervently 
than  to  be  permitted  to  travel  along  on  this  voyage.  He  demands  nothing 
but  the  most  essential  support  during  the  trip.  I  leave  it  to  your  Excellen- 
cy's gracious  insight  to  advise  me  about  the  participation  of  this  painter 
who  could  already  work  during  the  voyage  on  those  items  destined  to  be 
engraved  for  the  future  edition  of  the  travelogue.'" 

It  seems  reasonable  to  assume  that  von  Born  was  not  entirely  candid 
in  this  memo.  Surely  he  knew  that  Moll  was  nearly  ferry  years  of  age 
and  not  robust.  It  is  likely  he  was  also  aware  that  Moll  wanted  to 
emigrate,  for  which  subjects  of  European  rulers  needed  special  per- 
mission; in  Moll's  case  this  would  not  have  been  granted.'' 

Against  von  Horn's  advice,  Jacquin  chose  the  physician  Matthias 
Leopold  Stupicz"  to  accompany  Matter's  expedition.  This  choice, 
too,  seems  to  have  been  made  for  reasons  other  than  the  stated  ones. 
Stupicz  had  attended  Jacquin's  lectures  for  several  years  and  suppos- 
edly spoke  seven  languages.  In  actuality  he  spoke  a  flawed  German, 
Hungarian,  and  Croat.  'Von  Born  objected  because  Stupicz  had  "not 
the  least  knowledge  in  any  area  of  the  natural  sciences,  a  smattering 
of  botany  excepted  that  he  learned  from  Professor  Marter,  whose 
assistant  he  was."  He  called  on  Stupicz  "to  admit  this.""'  Never- 
theless, both  Stupicz  and  Moll  were  chosen  to  accompany  Marter 
on  his  expedition.  Richard  van  der  Schot,  the  Imperial  horticultur- 
ist at  Schonbrunn,  was  given  the  task  to  select  two  gardeners  for  the 
journey  who  would  collect  specimens  and  prepare  and  accompany 
plant  shipments  back  to  Europe.  Schot  chose  his  assistant  Franz 
Boos  (fig.  3)  and  gave  him  Franz  Bredemeyer  (fig.  4)  as  helper. '"' 
Born  writes  in  his  memo  that  "the  gardener  Bos,  who  is  to  make 
the  trip  on  His  Majest)''s  order,  will  receive  his  instructions  from 
the  Imperial  horticulturist  at  Schonbrunn  on  how  he  is  to  go  about 
collecting  the  plants.""  Marter,  the  leader  of  the  expedition,  was 
apparently   unaware   of  this   decision;    it   later  caused   much   fric- 


CHARLESTON    S    DRAWING    MASTER    BERNARD    ALBRECHT    MOLL 


^.  Mr.  Boos.  Franz  Boos,  the  gardener  for  the  Americi 
expedition  (p.  SV')-  i7S^. 


4.  Mr.  Bredemeyer.  Franz  Bredemeyer.  the  assistant  gardener 
for  the  American  expedition  (p.  ^ir).  nS}. 


16  JOURNAL    OF    E.'kRLY    SOUTHERN    DECORATIVE    ARTS  SUMMER    I99S 


tion  between  him  and  the  gardeners.''  Thus  began  an  expedition 
that  suffered  from  the  outset  from  a  multitude  of  misunderstand- 
ings. 

After  the  five  members  of  the  westward  expedition  were  selected, 
considerable  time  elapsed  before  they  began  their  journey.  A  ship 
was  chosen,  given  the  name  Le  Comte  Cobenzl  in  honor  of  the  Vice 
Chancellor,  and  Lt.  Col.  Bolz''  was  entrusted  with  its  command. 
Plans  were  made  to  make  the  East  Indian  expedition  less  expensive 
by  taking  a  cargo  of  mercury  and  selling  it  in  China.""  Salaries  were 
determined,  reevaluated,  and  changed.  Eventually  it  was  decided 
that  the  men  should  be  responsible  for  their  own  food  and  lodging 
expenses  once  they  had  arrived  in  America,  and  that  their  salaries 
should  approximate  their  remuneration  prior  to  the  expedition  mi- 
nus their  board  during  the  transatlantic  voyage." 

While  plans  and  preparations  were  still  being  made,  lists  being 
drawn  up  of  the  type  of  plants  and  animals  to  procure,  and  letters  of 
credit  being  arranged  through  banks  and  ambassadors,  Marter  and 
Moll  found  themselves  in  financial  difficulties.  On  December  4, 
1782,  Ignaz  von  Born  wrote  Cobenzl  that  immediately  upon  Mat- 
ter's appointment  to  the  expedition  a  substitute  professor  of  natural 
history  had  been  chosen  to  fill  his  chair  at  the  Theresianum.  "While 
the  substitute  had  begun  teaching  and  receiving  his  (Marter's)  salary 
in  November,  Marter  was  unable  to  make  ends  meet  without  an  in- 
come, particularly  in  view  of  the  indefinite  date  of  departure.  Born 
adds: 

The  painter  Moll  finds  himself  in  the  same  predicament.  Expecting  his 
departure  from  week  to  week,  unable  to  take  on  work,  he  had  also  dis- 
missed his  students,  and  is  now  starving  miserably  after  five  months  with 
no  income.  I  felt  it  to  be  my  duty  to  advise  your  Excellency  of  these  cir- 
cumstances and  to  leave  it  to  Your  Grace  to  arrange  for  a  remedy."' 

Finally  the  day  of  departure  was  at  hand.  Three  days  before  he 
was  to  leave  "Vienna  forever,  Bernhard  AJbrecht  Moll  formally  relin- 
quished his  share  in  his  father's  inheritance,  particularly  in  the  all- 


CHARLESTON    S    DRAWING    MASTER    BERNARD    ALBRECHT    MOLL 


important  collection  oi  minerals.  On  April  24,  1783,  he  signed  the 
following  renunciation: 

Because  I  am  about  to  depart  from  here  and  will  be  absent  from  my  fam- 
ily in  such  a  way  that  we  cannot  receive  news  from  each  other  for  some 
considerable  time;  I  declare  herewith  solemnly  and  earnestly,  under  no 
duress  and  irrevocably  for  all  time  and  circumstances;  knowing  that  I 
shall  never  have  the  right  to  change  my  mind  or  make  valid  dispositions 
either  by  testament,  gift,  directive  or  exchange  (since  all  shall  be  declared 
for  naught  and  invalid);  that  1  earnestly  renounce  all  natural  claims  on 
the  "Naturalienkabinet"  and  the  concomitant  book  collection  of  my 
blessed  father's  estate,  now  in  the  hands  of  my  dear  mother;  and  that  1 
surrender  and  yield  my  share  to  my  surviving  sisters  and  to  their  unhin- 
dered enjoyment  and  free  disposition  as  of  a  perfect  possession,  as  God  is 
my  witness!  Vienna,  24  April  1783. 

[Signed  and  Sealed]  bernhard   albrecht   moll 

A. A'.  Niituralieii  Kabinet  Painter^ 

Three  days  later,  on  April  27,  1783,  at  9:4s  a.m.  the  five  (Matter, 
Stupicz,  Moll,  Boos,  and  Bredemeyer)  began  their  journey  by  dili- 
gence (stagecoach)  from  Vienna  to  Brussels.  They  carried  with  them 
multiple  passports  signed  by  the  Emperor;  letters  of  recommenda- 
tion; a  list  of  consuls,  ambassadors,  and  ministers;  Imperial  letters  of 
credit  in  French,  English,  and  Latin;  and  lists  of  desired  plants, 
birds,  and  animals.  Because  the  physician  Matthias  Leopold  Stupicz 
kept  a  daily  journal  of  the  trip,  we  know  that  they  traveled  along  the 
same  route  taken  by  todays  ttains:  Vienna,  St.  Polten,  Amstetten, 
Linz.  At  Passau  they  ctossed  into  German  territory  and  continued  to 
Regensburg,  Niirnberg,  Wiirzburg,  Frankfurt,  Mainz,  Bonn,  Aach- 
en; then,  crossing  into  todays  Belgian  territory,  Liege,  Louvain,  and 
finally  Brussels,  where  they  arrived  on  May  20.'" 

Once  there,  a  change  of  plans  ordered  them  to  Paris,  then  to  Le 
Fiavre.  Much  time  was  wasted,  much  money  had  to  be  spent  on  tolls 
and  customs  duties  along  the  way.  A  new  map  of  North  America 
was  acquired  and  two  specialty  maps  of  Virginia  and  Carolina.'"  In 


JOURNAL    OF    EARLY    SOUTHERN     DECORATIVE    ARTS 


August  they  finally  left  Le  Havre  for  Philadelphia.  Matter's  journal 
records  the  memorable  event: 

After  waiting  s  days  for  favorable  winds,  August  i,  1783,  was  finally  the 
wished-for  day  on  which  we  were  able  to  depart  Europe.  The  oppor- 
tunity arose  for  passage  on  the  American  frigate  General  Washington,  the 
best  sailship  then  owned  by  the  American  Navy.  During  the  last  war  she 
had  been  captured  off  the  coast  of  Delaware  from  the  English,  who  called 
her  General  Mong.''''  Our  Captain  was  the  conqueror,  a  young  but  coura- 
geous man,  an  expert  in  naval  matters  who  had  made  several  trips  to 
Europe  on  Congressional  business.  The  last  crossing  to  France  took  him 
16'/;  days.^' 

It  was  probably  the  only  time  the  captain  enjoyed  such  a  brief 
transatlantic  voyage.  Matter  and  his  four  companions  arrived  in 
Philadelphia  on  September  9  at  11  a.m.  local  time  (4  p.m.  by  Mat- 
ter's watch,  which  he  had  left  on  European  time)  after  40  days  at  sea, 
during  which  they  experienced  three  terrible  storms,  nearly  ran  out 
of  drinking  water,  and  were  seasick  much  of  the  time.  Arriving  in 
Delaware  Bay  and  sailing  up  the  river  toward  Philadelphia,  Marter 
was  overcome  with  emotion. 

All  afternoon  we  had  before  our  eyes  the  most  romantic  scene  imagin- 
able: the  white  beaches  of  the  river,  disappearing  into  dark  woods  farther 
inland;  softly  rising  hills  dotted  here  and  there  with  pristine  farm  houses 
of  the  first  European  settlers  in  America;  small  canoes  crossing  every- 
where— these  gave  us  the  happiest  thoughts  about  the  new  world  that  lay 
before  us.^^ 

Their  captain  briefly  left  the  ship  and  brought  back  fresh  watermel- 
ons, apples,  and  peaches,  which  tasted  heavenly  after  the  long  depri- 
vation at  sea.  River  islands,  overgrown  with  reeds,  were  teeming  with 
ducks  and  other  wildlife,  and  the  sky  was  darkened  with  suddenly 
rising  flocks  of  blackbirds.  They  saw  nothing  but  "the  most  convinc- 
ing proof  of  the  natural  bounty  of  this  land.""  Marter  decided  to  re- 
main in  the  area  for  two  months,  then  go  farther  south  with  ap- 
proaching winter. 


CHARLESTONS    DRAWING    MASTER    BERNARD    ALBRECHT    MOLL 


However,  it  now  appeared  that  Bernhard  Moll  had  different 
plans.  Shortly  after  their  arrival  he  wrote  to  Ignaz  von  Born  that  he 
liked  America  and  had  decided  to  remain  in  the  New  World.  The 
letter  was  sent  trom  Philadelphia,  dated  September  17,  1783,  and  the 
style  shows  that  Moll  and  von  Born  were  friends  who  trusted  each 
other.  After  reporting  on  their  stormy  passage,  Moll  continues: 

I  would  have  had  a  merry  trip,  had  I  had  healthy  companions.  Mr. 
Marter  spoke  nary  a  word  the  entire  journey,  Stuppitz  whined  and 
prayed,  and  nothing  much  could  be  done  with  the  gardeners.  Besides,  I 
found  few  items  that  I  could  draw  to  pass  the  time.  There  was  nothing 
for  me  besides  a  flying  fish,  a  medusan,  and  a  small  grouper — these  three 
pieces  I  drew  in  my  cabin  during  calm.  Here  in  Philadelphia  I  have  al- 
ready completed  the  Exocoetus  volam  which  Catesby  drew  completely 
wrong  and  illuminated  it  in  his  work.  I  will  be  able  to  send  already  much 
of  my  work  with  the  first  transport.  How  glorious  it  is  in  this  free  city! 
We've  been  here  tor  8  days  and  not  a  soul  bothers  us.  We  live  as  freely  as 
it  we  were  American-born.  I  like  it  so  much  that  I  would  settle  here  if  I 
were  permitted,  I  would  certainly  not  starve  since  there  are  tew  artists 
here  and  none  in  my  field.  The  States  really  permit  a  naturalist  to  travel 
freely  to  the  innermost  parts  of  the  country,  hence  I  would  make  a  good 
living  because  the  gentlemen  pay  handsomely.  I  could  also  make  a  good 
bit  of  money  with  silhouettes  until  I've  gotten  around  to  all  the 
provinces.  Alread\'  I  have  a  collection  ot  civilized  American  faces. ^^ 

The  phrase  "I  would  settle  here  it  I  were  permitted "  is  an  indirect 
appeal  to  von  Born  to  make  discreet  inquiries  in  the  matter,  and  he 
discussed  it  with  Cobenzl."  The  individual  members  ot  the  expedi- 
tion were  never  very  compatible.  Since  they  were  responsible  for 
their  own  food  and  lodging,  had  separate  instructions  for  their  mis- 
sion, and  worked  independently,  team  work  never  had  a  chance  to 
develop.  Besides,  Marter  was  ten  years  younger  than  Moll,  a  com- 
moner, and  a  Catholic;  rather  than  fill  a  leadership  role,  he  tended  to 
emphasize  personal  dissimilarities.'"  Ultimately,  the  differences  in 
salary  and  social  class  were  a  never-ending  source  of  discontent  in 
the  land  ot  freedom  and  equality." 


JOURNAL    OF    EARLY    SOUTHERN    DECORATIVE    ARTS  SUMMER    I99S 


While  Marter  worked  chiefly  alone  trom  a  home  base  in  Philadel- 
phia, Moll  and  Bredemeyer  formed  a  team  that  worked  separately  in 
the  provinces.  Moll  drew  cryptogamous  plants,  tortoises  and  birds, ^^ 
but  he  also  produced  a  considerable  number  of  silhouettes  for  his 
own  benefit,  as  the  album  demonstrates.  The  profiles  of  Miss  Schall 
of  Bethlehem  and  numerous  others  from  the  Philadelphia,  New 
York,  and  New  Jersey  area  document  his  travels  inland  and  along  the 
coast  (for  a  listing  of  Moll's  subjects,  see  the  Appendix).  While  the 
silhouettes  oi  his  family  and  the  emperors  Joseph  II  and  Maximilian 
were  not  prepared  for  profit,  those  of  German  merchants,  military 
personnel,  and  ship  captains  in  New  York  and  Philadelphia  were 
most  certainly  remunerated  and  provided  Moll  with  an  income  in 
addition  to  his  salary. 

After  two  months  in  the  Northeast,  Stupicz  and  Boos  left  Phila- 
delphia by  boat  for  Charleston.  Marter  gave  Stupicz  instructions  and 
eight  hundred  thaJers  in  paper  money,  and  on  November  4,  1783, 
they  began  their  journey  southward.  Stupicz's  daily  journal  informs 
about  their  slow  progress,  the  cold,  the  storms,  and  life  on  board. 
On  November  9  he  wrote:  "During  the  night  I  was  baptized  5  times 
in  my  bed  by  the  waves.  At  daybreak  the  storm  subsided,  everyone 
was  sick,  I  made  some  hot  chocolate,  cooked  meat  for  dinner,  and  at 
noon  we  were  270  miles  from  Philadelphia.""'  Doing  their  own 
cooking  was  one  of  the  time-consuming  chores  to  which  the  expedi- 
tion members  had  become  accustomed.  Once  on  land,  the  tasks  of 
seeking  their  daily  lodging,  exchanging  their  foreign  banknotes  for 
local  currency,  and  maintaining  their  clothes  torn  in  the  wilderness 
caused  additional  delays. 

On  November  17  Stupicz  and  Boos  arrived  in  Charleston:  "We 
saw  land  both  southwest  and  northwest  and  at  7:00  a.m.  came  the 
pilot.  Toward  9:00  a.m.  the  city  came  in  view  and  at  about  10:30  we 
docked."""  Stupicz's  daily  record  provides  interesting  insights  into 
commercial  life  during  the  winter  of  1783-1784  in  and  around 
Charleston.  Looking  tor  plants  and  seeds,  he  and  Boos  came  upon 


CHARLESTON    S    DRAWING    MASTER    BERNARD    ALBRECHT    MOLL 


Dorchester,  "a  poor  place,  completely  destroyed  by  the  British,"'' 
waded  through  knee-deep  mud  walking  to  Goose  Creek  and  Monk's 
Corner,  and  spent  some  bitterly  cold  nights  without  a  fire  or  blan- 
kets on  the  bare  floor  of  country  inns.  Obtaining  food  in  the  thick- 
ets was  impossible,  and  since  they  had  been  unable  to  exchange 
more  than  fifty  thalers  into  local  currency,  they  ate  only  little  at  the 
inn.  Alone,  on  foot,  and  without  a  gun,  Stupicz  once  encountered 
an  alligator:  "When  the  rain  let  up  in  the  afternoon  I  went  along  the 
river  with  my  walking  stick  and  tound  a  crocodile."-  Didn't  cross 
over,  partly  because  I  didn't  have  a  rifle  and  partly  because  the 
brushy  terrain  didn't  permit  me  to  defend  myself.  Brought  home 
several  kinds  of  seeds.""' 


MOLL    S    CHARLESTON    YEARS 

On  his  return  to  Charleston  Stupicz  found  that  Moll  and  the  gar- 
dener Bredemeyer  had  arrived  from  the  Northeast.  He  writes  on  De- 
cember i6,  1783:  "Toward  9:00  a.m.  I  met  Moll  and  the  gardener, 
brought  them  to  my  place  and  spent  the  day  with  them.""  Moll  ex- 
perienced the  same  difficulty  as  Stupicz  in  exchanging  the  Emperor's 
bankdrafts  and  banknotes  into  the  needed  local  currency.  On  nu- 
merous occasions  he  and  Stupicz  unsuccessfully  went  to  a  Danish 
ship  in  the  harbor  whose  merchant  owner  had  held  out  some 
promise  to  cash  their  paper  notes,"'  and  on  December  20  Moll  invit- 
ed Stupicz  to  dinner  at  his  place.  Stupicz  spent  considerable  time 
with  Moll  during  the  Christmas  season  and  went  to  St.  John's  Ger- 
man Lutheran  church  repeatedly.  Moll  did  not  accompany  him 
to  church,  and  on  January  2,  1784,  Stupicz  left  the  city  again  to  con- 
tinue his  botanizing  activities  in  the  countryside  with  the  two  gar- 
deners. 

During  1784  the  difficulties  among  the  members  of  the  expedition 
came  to  a  head.  Matter,  who  had  arrived  in  Charleston  on  January 
16,  1784,""  and  had  found  the  weather  to  be  colder  than  expected. 


JOURNAL    OF    EARLY    SOUTHERN    DECORATIVE    ARTS  SUMMER    I995 


was  eager  to  move  on.  Taking  Boos  with  him,  he  stopped  briefly  in 
St.  Augustine  in  mid-March  and  then  continued  to  the  Bahamas, 
returning  to  Charleston  at  the  end  of  May.  Stupicz  he  had  sent 
northward.  In  his  report  of  June  15  from  Charleston  to  Count 
Cobenzl  he  notes  with  scathing  sarcasm  that  Stupicz,  "this  great 
polyglot,  has  not  yet  learned  the  English  language  to  a  point  where 
he  can  function  among  Englishmen  without  an  interpreter  .  .  .  and 
since  nobody  speaks  Hungarian  or  Croat  in  North  America,  I  had 
to  send  him  to  the  tew  Germans  in  North  Carolina  to  collect  what- 
ever rarities,  if  any,  he  might  find  for  us  there.""'  In  the  same  letter 
Marter  complains  that  three  quarters  of  the  birds  he  had  bought 
for  shipment  to  Vienna  had  died  during  his  absence  from  Charles- 
ton because  Moll  and  Bredemeyer  had  not  tended  them  properly. 
This  is  surely  an  unfair  accusation  inasmuch  as  Stupicz  mentions  in 
his  journal  that  the  birds  he  purchased  died  within  twenty-four 
hours  in  captivity. 

A  major  source  of  discontent  among  Matter's  crew  continued  to 
be  salary  inequities  and  exchange  rates.  Since  they  were  required  to 
pay  for  their  own  living  expenses,  they  felt  cheated  when  they  did 
not  receive  the  full  equivalent  of  the  sum  promised  them  at  home; 
but  South  Carolina's  currency  problems  in  the  aftermath  of  the  Rev- 
olution made  it  very  difficult  to  exchange  foreign  bills  for  local  mon- 
ey. "Stupicz  has  insinuated  here  and  there  that  I  am  defrauding  him 
of  a  part  of  his  salary,  refusing  to  accept  the  true  value  of  the  Spanish 
thalers  which  I  receive  at  the  local  bank,  and  instead  wants  the 
equivalent  of  their  worth  in  Vienna, "  Marter  writes.  Although  aware 
of  Moll's  powerful  friends  at  home,  he  also  complains  at  length 
about  him  and  asks  Count  Cobenzl  for  advice  on  the  personnel 
problems  he  was  experiencing: 

Moll,  who  has  been  the  most  useful  of  them  until  now,  has  changed 
completely.  He  perceives  a  rosy  future  for  himself  in  his  profession  in 
America  and  didn't  lift  a  finger  for  his  job  while  I  was  in  the  Bahamas, 


CHARLESTON    S    DRAWING    MASTER    BERNARD    ALBRECHT    MOLL 


despite  the  many  items  I  had  left  behind  for  painting.  When  I  returned 
he  demanded  a  monthly  raise  of  i6  Thalers,  and  because  I  didn't  agree 
immediately,  he  became  most  impolite.  Now  he  is  so  derelict  in  his  duty 
that  he  has  merely  produced  the  few  plates  I  am  sending,  none  in  dupli- 
cate, and  just  barely  acceptable  for  engraving;  and  although  I  pay  him  the 
extra  money  so  as  not  to  give  him  an  excuse,  I  can  see  by  everything  he 
does  that  he  just  wants  to  force  his  dismissal  by  reftising  to  do  his  dut)'.  It 
is  a  thankless  process.''^ 

Matter's  judgment  proved  correct.  Little  more  than  three  months 
later  he  was  forced  to  report  the  final  breakdown  oi  his  relationship 
with  Moll.  On  September  28,  1784,  he  wrote  from  Charleston  to  his 
superiors  in  Vienna  that  he  had  discovered  the  real  reason  lor  Molls 
insubordination: 

A  few  days  ago  some  light  was  shed  on  the  case  of  the  painter  Moll:  his 
dereliction  of  duty  and  the  constant  grumbling  about  his  small  salary 
plus  8  Thaler  bonus  per  month  (which  is  relatively  speaking  a  much  larg- 
er sum  than  my  own)  brought  me  to  the  decision  to  send  him  back  to 
Europe  on  the  first  available  vessel.  The  moment  I  told  him  ...  to  get 
ready  for  the  trip  he  revealed  the  secret  of  his  complaints  and  dissatisfac- 
tion which  he  presumably  communicated  to  you.  He  answered  "that  he 
was  not  a  subject  of  the  Emperor  and  hence  not  bound  to  return;  that  as 
of  this  time  he  considered  his  services  no  longer  needed,  and  neither  my 
[Marter's]  superior  nor  I  were  presently  able  to  deport  him;  nor  did  he 
desire  to  see  his  Fatherland  ever  again. "''' 

Marter  knew  that  he  was  on  thin  ice.  As  leader  ol  the  expedition 
it  was  his  prerogative  to  send  Moll  home;  as  a  commoner  it  was  pre- 
sumptuous of  him  to  demand  obedience  from  the  only  nobleman  in 
the  group.  He  was  surely  aware  of  the  high  esteem  in  which  Moll's 
family  was  held  at  court.  He  feared  that  Moll  had  told  his  Iriends  in 
Vienna  unflattering  things  about  him,  and  that  his  fellow  Mason 
and  leader  Ignaz  von  Born  would  back  Moll's  version  of  the  tale.  He 
admitted  that  "it  would  seem  incredible  that  a  person  who  had  been 
recommended  by  such  eminent  men  should  be  so  unsatisfactory, " 


24  JOURNAL    OF    EARLY    SOUTHERN    DECORATIVE    ARTS  SUMMER    I99S 


and  therefore  he  found  it  necessary  to  enclose  a  statement  by  wit- 
nesses. The  brief  statement  reads:  "The  undersigned  attest  that  Mr. 
Moll  refused  the  bidding  of  Director  Matter  to  return  and  be  held 
accountable  as  a  useless  and  dissatisfied  member  of  the  expedition, 
and  that  he  [Moll]  withdrew  voluntarily  from  Imperial  service. 
[Signed]  D.  Stupicz,  Franz  Boos. " " 

The  news  of  Moll's  defection  caused  little  surprise  in  Vienna.  On 
November  15,  1784,  von  Born  wrote  to  Cobenzl  that  Matter  would 
have  to  continue  his  travels  alone  with  Boos  because  Moll  and 
Stupicz  had  found  sufficient  means  in  America  to  make  a  living.  ' 
He  seems  unperturbed,  "'especially  since  according  to  their  decrees 
they  will  not  be  able  to  obtain  a  position  at  court  after  their  re- 
turn." -  Vice  Chancellor  Cobenzl's  letter  of  November  22,  1784,  ad- 
dressed to  His  Majesty  is  also  seemingly  unconcerned.  He  notes  the 
recent  arrival  of  Bredemeyer  with  a  substantial  shipment  of  animals 
and  plants  from  North  America  and  some  paintings  of  native  ani- 
mals by  Moll,  then  chats  pleasantly  about  expected  future  shipments 
from  other  parts  of  the  world.  He  mentions  the  loss  of  personnel  al- 
most in  passing  and  suggests  that  four  "new  subjects"  be  sent  to 
meet  Matter  in  Martinique  to  replace  the  original  crew;  it  would 
make  no  difference  in  the  cost  of  the  expedition,  since  only  the  in- 
significant travel  costs  of  the  four  would  be  involved.' 

The  only  one  genuinely  surprised  by  this  turn  of  events  seems  to 
have  been  Joseph  II.  Stung  by  the  defection  of  Moll,  who  had  re- 
ceived many  noteworthy  favors  from  the  Imperial  family,  he  wrote  a 
lengthy  reply  in  the  margin  of  Cobenzl's  report:  "I  am  not  as  indif- 
ferent as  you  to  the  loss  of  two  people  like  Stubitz  and  Moll,  for 
whom  one  has  paid  travel  expenditures.  Besides  these  costs,  they 
shall  be  lost  to  the  state  as  subjects."  He  blames  Matter's  quarrel- 
some nature  for  the  fiasco,  criticizes  the  inferior  quality  and  quantity 
of  the  recently  arrived  shipment,  and  concludes  that  Matter  merely 
wanted  to  get  tid  of  his  companions  in  order  to  be  left  to  do  as  he 
pleased.  His  insttuctions  were  that  Matter  should  receive  no  addi- 


CHARLESTON    S    DRAWING    MASTER    BERNARD    ALBRECHT    MOLL 


tional  assistants,  that  he  proceed  to  East  India  with  Boos,  and  return 
to  Europe  after  a  final  collection  stop  at  the  Cape  of  Good  Hope. 
For  the  two  renegades  Joseph  II  has  a  final  message: 

You  are  to  write  Stubitz  and  Moll  that  they  are  reminded  ot  their  dury 
and  integrity  by  means  of  which  they  offered  to  complete  an  assignment 
for  payment.  It  is  hoped,  therefore,  that  they  will  fulfill  this  obligation 
unless  they  want  to  be  publicly  known  as  deadbeats  and  swindlers.  Con- 
fident ot  the  contrary  they  are  to  be  privately  assigned  to  gather — alone 
and  independently  ot  Matter — a  well-chosen  collection  ot  minerals, 
plants,  and  animals  in  South  and  North  America  and  in  the  Antilles,  and 
to  return  with  it  to  Europe. 

In  this  manner  you  will  proceed  with  this  business  and  write  to  both 
Matter  and  Stubitz. 

[Signed  in  his  own  hand]  Joseph    i  i  . '' 

Cobenzl  wrote  his  reply  to  Marter  on  November  29,  1784,  reporting 
that  Bredemeyer  had  arrived  with  the  transport,  but  that  most  ot  the 
plants  and  animals  had  died  en  route.  Only  sixteen  of  the  original 
ninety  birds  had  survived,  along  with  one  raccoon  and  a  very  small 
number  ot  plants.  Regarding  Moll  he  writes: 

I  don't  doubt  that  you  have  confronted  Moll  and  emphasized  his  un- 
grateful wrongmindedness,  and  also  have  read  to  him  my  letter  of  Sep- 
tember 16  in  this  regard.  Therefore  I  don't  want  to  give  up  hope  yet  that 
he  will  arrive  at  some  insight  and  will  fulfill  his  obligation  better  than  be- 
fore. ^  However,  if  he  should  persist  in  his  idleness  and  eventually  leave 
you,  you  will  have  to  let  it  happen.  You  have  no  means  to  force  him  to 
fulfill  his  dury,  and  to  drag  along  an  individual  who  doesn't  want  to  work 
would  only  cause  inconvenience  and  useless  expense.  '' 

For  all  intents  and  purposes,  this  signified  the  end  ot  the  Moll 
affair  for  the  Austrian  Imperial  Court  in  Vienna.  In  the  meantime, 
Moll  had  indeed  settled  at  No.  31  Broad  Street  in  Charleston  and 
had  begun  advertising  tor  students.  On  November  23,  1784,  the  fol- 
lowing ad  appeared  in  the  Gazette  (see  figure  i): 


26  JOURNAL    OF    EARLY    SOUTHERN    DECORATIVE    ARTS  SUMMER    I995 


The  ART  of  DRAWING. 

Bernard  Moll  (lately  from  Vienna) 

REQUESTS  leave  to  Inform  the  Ladies  and  Gentlemen 
of  this    City,    that    he    has    undertaken    to    teach    that 
necessary  accomplishment, 

The  Art  of  Drawing, 
In  All  its  branches. 
He  flatters  himself  (from  the  attention  which  he  shall  observe) 
to  those  whom  he  has  the  honour  of  instructing,  that  with  appli- 
cation thev  will  in  a  short  time  become  proficients. -Profiles  done 
in  the  most  exact  manner,  of  all  sizes.  No.  31,  Broad-street.'' 


At  the  time  ot  this  advertisement  Moll  had  already  gained  accep- 
tance by  many  of  Charlestons  prominent  families.  Silhouettes  of 
more  than  five  dozen  important  Charleston  residents  are  represented 
in  Moll's  album  for  1784  alone,  among  them  a  number  ot  those  that 
the  Swiss-born  artist  Jeremiah  Theus  also  had  painted  before  his 
death  in  1774,  such  as  Dr.  Irving  and  members  of  the  Motte,  Rut- 
ledge,  and  Heyward  families. 

Three  months  after  this  first  advertisement  Moll  again  publicized 
his  skill  in  creating  silhouettes,  an  inexpensive  and  popular  means  of 
portraiture.  A  persons  profile  was  drawn  either  on  black  paper  or  the 
drawing  was  inked  in.  The  silhouette  could  also  be  cut  out  carefully, 
mounted  on  an  appropriate  background,  and  framed.  This  variation 
is  not  documented  in  Charleston  before  Moll  practiced  it  there.  On 
February  25,  1785,  the  Gazette  c^mtd  this  advertisement: 

Profile  Likenesses 

Done  in  the  most  exact  manner,  and 

very  reasonably,  by 

BERNARD  MOLL, 

No.  31,  Broad-street.  * 


CHARLESTON    S    DRAWING    MASTER    BERNARD    ALBRECHT    MOLL 


It  is  clear  that  Moll  liked  Charleston  and  its  New  World  culture. 
The  city  had  a  large  and  well-established  segment  of  German-speak- 
ing immigrants  who  had  brought  with  them  German  books  and  a 
desire  for  cultural  amenities.  As  early  as  1736  Charleston  had  a  per- 
manent theater  and  was  one  of  the  first  American  cities  to  afford  its 
very  own  professional  stage.  Indicative  of  the  size  and  importance  ot 
the  city's  German-speaking  population  in  the  late  eighteenth  centu- 
ry is  the  fact  that  Charleston  was  the  first  American  city  to  stage  a 
German  play  '  The  city  also  had  a  substantial  contingent  ot  Ger- 
man-speaking businessmen  such  as  Michael  Kalteisen,  who  founded 
the  German  Friendly  Society  in  1766  and  was  co-founder  of  St. 
Johns,  the  first  German-language  Lutheran  church  in  Charleston; 
craftsmen  such  as  the  shoemaker  and  tailor  Henry  Timrod,  the  first 
to  sign  the  list  of  volunteers  for  the  German  Fusiliers,  organized  in 
the  defense  against  the  British  in  1775;  musicians  such  as  Charles 
Theodore  Pachelbel,  organist  at  St.  Philip's  from  1739  to  his  death; 
and  Hermann  Moll,  a  surveyor  and  cartographer  who  may  have 
been  a  relative  of  Bernhard  Moll,  whose  work  is  also  well  known. 
Hermann  Moll  produced  some  of  the  earliest  maps  of  South  Caroli- 
na, the  originals  of  which  are  now  in  the  Austrian  National  Library.™ 
Obviously,  Moll's  decision  to  travel  to  America  and  remain  in 
Charleston  was  well  planned.  When  he  said  in  his  application  to  the 
Emperor  that  "it  had  been  his  great  desire  since  childhood  to  go  on 
such  a  journey,"  he  most  likely  spoke  the  truth;  on  May  23,  1785  he 
took  the  oath  of  allegiance  to  become  a  citizen  of  the  United  States. 

During  the  next  two  years  Moll  moved  several  times  within  the 
city.  In  late  August  or  early  September  1785  he  relocated  his  home 
and  studio  to  27  Tradd  Street  and  advertised  his  new  address  in  the 
Columbia)!  Herald: 

MOLL, 
DRAWING-MASTER, 

Is  removed  to  No.  27,  Tradd-street, 
Where  he  teaches  that  art  on  very  reasonable  terms."' 


JOURNAL    OF    EARLY    SOUTHERN    DECORATIVE    ARTS  SUMMER    I995 


The  following  year  he  moved  to  Lynch's  Lane.  He  appears  to  have 
made  contact  with  Charleston's  upper  class  and  made  an  adequate 
living,  but  at  the  time  pulmonary  diseases  ravaged  South  Carolina's 
population  in  epidemic  proportions  and  Moll's  earlier  "protracted 
illness "  and  "chest  defect"  may  have  taken  a  turn  for  the  worse.  On 
November  19,  1787,  he  advertised  in  the  City  Gazette  that  he  had 
moved  to  31  King  Street,  a  choice  location  then  as  now,  offering  the 
testimony  of  "several  of  the  most  eminent  families"  in  Charleston  as 
witness  to  his  skill.  If  he  was  feeling  ill,  the  schedule  he  maintained 
belied  it.  Indeed,  the  founding  of  a  school  suggests  an  overflow  of 
pupils  at  a  respectable  tuition: 

Drawing  Academy. 
THE  subscriber  begs  leave  to  inform  his  friends  and  the  pub- 
lic in  general,  that  he  has  removed  from  his  late  apartments  in 
Lynch's  Lane,  to  No.  31,  King-street,  where  he  means  to  carry 
on 

The  Art  of  Drawing, 
in  all  its  different  branches;  he  therefore  solicits  the  favours  of 
all  young  ladies  and  gentlemen,  and  flatters  himself  they  will 
kindly  grant  him  their  support,  the  facility  of  his  instructions 
being  well  known  to  several  of  the  most  eminent  families  in  this 

cit>r 

He  continues  to  give  lessons  twice  a  week  at  his  own  House, 
viz.  Thursdays  and  Samrdays,  from  3  to  5  o'clock  in  the  after- 
noon, and  from  7  to  9  in  the  evening — He  has  also  opened  an 
Evening  School  twice  a  week,  viz.  Mondays  and  Wednesdays — 
His  price  is  one  guinea  per  month,  and  one  guinea  entrance. 

Barnard  A.  Moll, 
Drawing  Master.'^ 

Bernhard  Moll  had  found  sufficient  means  to  remain  in  America, 
but  the  fulfillment  of  his  childhood  dream  coincided  with  his  death. 
He  lived  to  see  his  U.S.  citizenship  duly  recorded  in  Charleston  on 
April  30,  1788:  "This  is  to  certify,  that  Bernhard  Moll,  Gendeman, 


CHARLESTON    S    DRAWING    MASTER    BERNARD    ALBRECHT    MOLL 


late  a  Subject  of  the  Emperor  of  Germany  is  become  a  Citizen  of 
this  State  he  having  taken  and  subscribed  the  Oath  of  Allegiance  and 
Fidelity.""'  His  will,  dated  June  25,  1788,  is  the  last  known  document 
signed  by  him  and  leaves  his  entire  possessions  to  a  woman  named 
Hagar,  with  whom  he  lived  at  the  time."'  Moll  must  have  died  short- 
ly thereafter  because  Edward  Lightwood  qualified  as  executor  oi 
Bernhard  Moll's  will  on  July  23,  1788.  On  September  9,  1788,  Molls 
personal  effects  were  sold,"  and  on  November  13,  1788,  his  paintings 
and  professional  utensils  changed  owners  at  public  auction."'  A  final 
inventory  and  a  last  call  tor  outstanding  debts  were  the  last  com- 
memorations of  Bernhard  Moll." 

Nobody  thought  of  notifying  his  family  in  Vienna  of  his  death. 
When  Mrs.  Moll  died  in  1792,  six  surviving  children  were  listed  in 
the  probate  records,  including  Bernhard  Moll.  The  document  states 
that  "the  first  of  these  sons  [Bernhard]  went  to  America.  His  last  let- 
ter was  from  Charlestown  in  the  month  of  December  1786.  Since 
that  time  his  family  has  not  heard  from  him,  however."""  The  renun- 
ciation of  Moll's  claims  to  his  father's  estate  that  he  had  signed  on  24 
April  1783  played  its  significant  role  in  the  settlement  of  the  case. 

THE    ALBUM    AND     MOLl's    SILHOUETTES 

Besides  the  engraving  that  accompanied  Moll's  advertisement  in 
Vienna's  Rea/zeitnng,  only  the  volume  of  silhouettes  in  the  Royal 
Ontario  Museum,  Toronto,  can  be  positively  attributed  to  Moll. 
The  album  contains  148  profiles  of  which  76  sitters  are  labeled  as  be- 
ing from  Charleston.  Judge  Heyward  (page  17  verso)  is  also  from 
Charleston,  although  not  so  designated.  The  seventy  existing 
Charleston  silhouettes  and  a  transcription  of  Matter's  index  are  re- 
produced in  the  Appendix.  The  index  lists  151  names.  The  profiles  of 
Miss  Neuman  and  Mr.  Somarsall  (page  82  recto  and  verso),  and  an 
unidentified  silhouette  on  page  83  verso  (possibly  Bernard  Moll  or 
his  brother  Albrecht)  are  missing  from  the  index.  Pages  i  and  2  con- 


30  JOURNAL    OF    EARLY    SOUTHERN    DECORATIVE    ARTS  SUMMER    19  9") 


tain  the  profiles  of  Emperors  Joseph  II  and  Maximilian  of  Austria; 
pages  3  to  6  are  blank  and  not  listed  in  the  index;  Mr.  Hall's  silhou- 
ette on  page  7  has  been  bound  between  pages  4  and  5;  and  the  pro- 
files of  Mrs.  and  Mr.  Sanders  (pages  41T  and  43r,  respectively)  are 
misnumbered  in  the  index.  Three  pages,  73,  76,  and  79,  are  missing 
from  the  album;  according  to  the  index,  the  sitters  on  those  pages 
were  Mrs.  Terons  (73r),  Mr.  Armstrong  (73V),  Mr.  Smyth  (76r),  and 
Mrs.  Braun  (79r)  and  Mr.  Kraus  (79V).  The  name  for  page  76  verso 
is  illegible. 

The  profiles  were  cut  from  black-washed  paper  and  first  placed 
on  the  recto  side  of  the  laid-paper  pages  of  the  album,  which  mea- 
sures 5.8  X  4  inches.*"  The  images  vary  in  size,  suggesting  that  some 
were  intended  for  mounting  in  oval  frames  or  lockets.  Profiles  of 
Emperors  Joseph  II  and  Maximilian  introduce  the  album,  followed 
by  the  portraits  of  Ignaz  von  Born,  Moll's  family  members,  and 
prominent  Viennese  officials.  Members  of  the  expedition  also  appear 
in  the  early  section.  The  order  suggests  that  the  collection  was  begun 
in  Vienna  and  that  these  early  silhouettes  were  affixed  according  to 
the  social  ranking  of  the  individuals.  Successive  sitters  from  Bel- 
gium, France,  the  American  Northeast  (Philadelphia,  New  York, 
New  Jersey),  and  Charleston  fit  the  chronology  of  Moll's  travels.  Ini- 
tially, the  silhouettes  were  placed  only  on  the  recto  side  of  each  page, 
which  was  numbered  and  marked  off  by  lines  to  suggest  a  frame  for 
the  profile.  When  the  end  of  the  album  was  reached,  profiles  were 
also  placed  on  the  verso  side,  beginning  at  the  front  of  the  album 
from  page  7.  (Emperors  Joseph  II  and  Maximilian  were  respectfully 
accorded  an  entire  album  leaf  to  themselves.)  In  this  manner  most  of 
the  rest  of  the  album  was  filled,  but  the  chronological  order  as  one 
leafs  through  the  album  is  confusing. 

The  silhouettes  depict  members  of  Charleston's  foremost  families. 
It  speaks  for  Moll's  skill  that  several  of  them  had  also  commissioned 
portraits  by  Jeremiah  Theus  (d.  1774)."°  Among  them  is  Thomas 
Heyward,  Jr.   (1746-1809),  signer  of  the  Declaration  of  Indepen- 


CHARLESTON    S    DRAWING    MASTER    BERNARD    ALBRECHT    MOLL 


dence,  who  was  later  made  a  judge  in  South  CaroHna.  Molls  silhou- 
ette "Judge  Heyward"  is  dated  1784  (figure  25).  Moil's  "Ms.  Hayn" 
may  be  the  young  woman  whom  Theus  painted  earlier  as  "Little  Al- 
ice Hayne"  feeding  a  squirrel.  Alice  Hayne  was  the  daughter  of  Mr. 
and  Mrs.  Abraham  Hayne,  both  of  whom  Theus  also  painted.  Moll's 
Miss  Hayne  portrays  a  self- assured,  stylishly  dressed  young  woman 
(figure  68).  The  Alexander  Fraser  painted  in  1750  by  Jeremiah  Theus 
is  perhaps  the  "Mr.  Fraser"  depicted  in  Moll's  silhouette  (figure  59). 
He  and  his  wife  Mary  Grimke  (possibly  Moll's  "Mrs.  Fraser, "  figure 
60)  had  fourteen  children,  of  whom  Moll's  Alex,  Polly,  Betsy,  Judy, 
Nancy,  Suky,  and  James  Fraser  may  be  a  few  (figures  61—67). 

The  profiles  of  Mrs.  and  Mr.  Garden  (figures  37  and  38)  may  well 
be  those  of  Alexander  Garden,  Jr.,  son  of  the  famous  physician  and 
naturalist  of  the  same  name,  and  his  wife,  Ann  Gibbes.  The  couple 
was  married  in  1784,  and  the  profiles  have  an  air  of  celebration  about 
them;  Mrs.  Garden  might  very  well  have  sat  for  Moll  in  her  wedding 
costume." 

Among  other  Charleston  families  portrayed  by  Theus  is  the  fami- 
ly of  George  Abbott  Hall.  Moll's  silhouettes  include  a  profile  of 
George  Abbott  Hall,  his  two  sons  John  Ladson  and  George,  Jr.,  and 
seven  daughters,  all  except  Elizabeth  (Moll's  "Miss  Betsy  Hall ")  un- 
der age  (figures  15-24)."'  The  elder  Hall  owned  property  in  Tradd 
Street  where  Moll  also  had  a  studio.  Interestingly,  The  Biographical 
Directory  of  the  South  Carolina  House  of  Representatives  states  that  the 
names  of  only  five  of  Hall's  nine  children  could  be  found;  the  album 
identifies  all  nine. " 

Others  of  Charleston's  social  elite  profiled  by  Moll  include  the 
Rutledge,  Drayton,  Middleton,  Huger,  Mott,  Irving,  and  Purcell 
families.  The  silhouette  of  the  Rev.  Henry  Purcell  was  cut  in  the  year 
in  which  he  was  elected  Rector  of  St.  Michael's  Parish  church  in 
Charleston  (figure  30)."  A  separate,  detailed  study  of  these  families 
relative  to  Moll's  silhouettes  may  well  result  in  the  discovery  of  addi- 
tional works  by  him. 


JOURNAL    OF    EARLY    SOUTHERN    DECORATIVE    ARTS  SUMMER    1995 


Bernhard  Moll  was  perhaps  the  first  artist  who  employed  the 
technique  ot  cutting  profiles  in  Charleston,  a  variation  of  the  genre 
requiring  considerably  more  skill  than  merely  drawing  and  painting 
them.  In  Vienna,  the  art  flourished  as  a  parlor-game  entertainment; 
silhouettists  would  quickly  and  dexterously  cut  likenesses  before  an 
appreciative  audience.  In  Charleston,  the  portrait  painter  Cephas 
Thompson  advertised  in  1804  that  he  cut  profiles  "with  his  machine, 
which  is  on  a  new  principle,  and  more  accurate  than  any  in  use.'^  He 
also  painted  silhouettes.  Isaac  Todd  cut  profiles  in  1807  which  he 
stamped  with  "Todd's  patent,"""  and  Mr.  Cromwell  from  London 
cut  profiles  in  1810,  advertising  "a  superior  style  ol  accuracy  and  ele- 
gance to  any  ever  before  taken  in  Charleston."""  In  the  same  year, 
John  Thomson,  "lately  arrived  from  the  West-Indies,"  cut  and 
painted  profiles  and  taught  drawing  "in  all  its  branches."'"'  If  Moll 
indeed  introduced  this  technique  in  Charleston,  it  would  explain  his 
popularity  and  his  comment  to  Born  shortly  alter  his  arrival  that 
there  were  few  artists  and  none  in  his  field. 

All  of  Moll's  silhouettes  show  remarkable  dexterity  in  their  scis- 
sor-cutting  and  exquisite  skill  in  characterization,  capturing  the  de- 
meanor and  individual  personality  traits  of  the  sitters.  Dr.  Irving, 
with  his  soft,  fleshy  lips,  bushy  eyebrows  and  thick,  braided  tresses, 
seems  portly  joviality  personified  (figure  81).  The  Rev.  Henry  Purcell 
shows  both  a  fine,  somewhat  reserved,  very  correct  manner  of  the 
minister,  and  the  very  erect  bearing  of  a  military  man.  An  almost 
childlike  innocence  is  portrayed  in  the  youthful  faces  of  the  two  gar- 
deners Boos  and  Bredemeyer  (figures  3  and  4),  whereas  Mr.  Marter's 
profile,  while  still  youthful,  conveys  a  more  forceful,  determined  at- 
titude (figure  2).  The  furrowed  brow  and  doubtfully  raised  chin  of 
"Mr.  Lecke  from  Hamburg"  betray  the  savvy,  energetic  businessman 
(figure  27). 

Concentrating  on  portraying  the  personality  of  the  sitters,  Moll 
avoids  the  large  and  elaborate  headdresses  of  the  time,  usually  show- 
ing the  men  without  hats  and  the  women  with  small,  frilly  caps  or 


CHARLESTON    S    DRAWING    MASTER    BERNARD    ALBRECHT    MOLL 


hats  that  accentuate  and  complement  the  face  rather  than  detracting 
from  its  features.  The  silhouette  of  Mr.  Franc.  Fohrmann,  probably 
made  while  Moll  was  still  in  Europe,  illustrates  the  reason:  his  ex- 
pression is  overpowered  by  the  large,  substantial-looking  hat — per- 
haps part  of  a  required  military  uniform — that  dwarfs  his  features 
(figure  5).  His  features  seems  almost  coincidental  to  the  attire. 

Nevertheless,  the  portraits  carefully  depict  the  sometimes  extrava- 
gant ladies'  headdresses  of  the  1780s.  Moll  is  particularly  adept  at 
capturing  the  feeling  of  the  showy  ribbons,  lace,  artificial  Bowers,  and 
feathers  that  went  into  these  confections.  Though  several  women 
wear  hats,  these  are  small  compared  with  the  large  hats  seen  in  many 
painted  portraits  of  fashionable  women  of  the  period.""  The  fanciful 
headdresses  worn  by  Misses  Betsy  and  Sarah  Hall  both  soften  the 
impression  of  Betsy's  energetic  profile  and  add  interest  to  Sarah's 
unassuming  features  (figures  16  and  17).  In  either  case  they  enhance 
and  frame  the  personal  characteristics  of  the  sitter.  In  contrast,  an 
unassuming  cap  covers  and  hides  the  hair  of  Caroline  at  Mr.  Deslan- 
des  (figure  6).  Effortlessly,  it  seems,  the  artist  captures  the  counte- 
nance of  the  old  woman  with  her  bent  body  and  sorrowful  brow. 
She  is  the  only  one  in  the  album  identified  only  by  her  first  name,  a 
liberty  commonly  taken  with  servants  and  indigent,  live-in  relatives. 

Moll's  silhouettes  are  among  the  best  of  the  genre,  and  the  cross 
section  of  businessmen  and  workers,  ministers'  wives  and  noble- 
women, children  and  old  politicians,  provides  an  interesting  per- 
spective on  eighteenth-century  society  and  family  life.  How  the  al- 
bum came  into  Matter's  hands,  or  if  it  was  not  perhaps  even 
Marter's  own  from  the  outset,  is  a  question  that  must  remain  open. 
Since  silhouettes  were  commonly  cut  in  multiples,  Moll  may  have 
kept  examples  in  the  album  to  showcase  his  skill  to  prospective 
clients.  On  the  other  hand,  Marter  may  have  compiled  the  album 
himself  with  cuts  given  him  by  Moll.  According  to  his  contract  as  a 
member  of  the  expedition,  Moll  was  to  supply  all  of  his  paintings 
and  drawings  to  Marter  in  duplicate  to  guard  against  loss  during 


34  JOURNAL    OF    EARLY    SOUTHERN    DECORATIVE    ARTS  SUMMER    199S 


5.  Mr.  Franc:  Fohrm.inn  {p.  z.SW.  17S3. 


6.  Caroline  chcz  Mr.  Dcslandcs  (/>.  }6r).  1783. 


CHARLESTON    S    DRAWING    MASTER    BERNARD    ALBRECHT    MOLL 


shipment.  After  Moll  arrived  in  Charleston  in  December  1783,  he 
spent  most  of  his  time  establishing  himself  among  the  first  families 
of  the  city  and  neglected  his  contractual  duties.  When  Matter  re- 
turned to  Charleston  from  the  Bahamas  in  May  1784  he  found  that 
Moll  hadn't  worked  on  the  items  he  had  left  behind  to  be  painted, 
had  only  produced  a  few  plates  ("none  in  duplicate"),'""  and  had  in- 
stead sold  silhouettes  for  private  profit.  Since  Moll  was  still  being 
paid  a  salary  by  Marter  throughout  1784,  it  is  probable  that  Matter 
insisted  on  receiving  cuts  of  Molls  silhouettes.  When  Marter  even- 
tually left  Charleston  in  the  spring  of  1785  without  Moll,  the  addi- 
tion of  silhouettes  to  his  collection  ended.  It  is  entirely  possible  that 
he  sold  the  profiles  before  leaving  America,  sensing  that  he  would  be 
denied  resumption  of  his  teaching  position  upon  his  return  to  Vien- 
na, which  did  occur.  On  receiving  a  report  dated  August  11,  1788,  on 
Matter's  expedition,  Joseph  II  replied  in  the  margin  that  Matter  had 
served  poorly  in  the  job  entrusted  to  him,  and  that  he  could  not  ex- 
pect to  be  reinstated  in  his  academic  position  upon  his  teturn.'"' 

Moll's  Charleston  silhouettes,  published  hete  for  the  first  time,  in- 
troduce this  artist's  work  and  fill  a  perceived  void  in  Charleston  of 
extant  examples  of  the  genre.  It  is  hoped  that  their  publication  will 
stimulate  a  search  for  additional  works  by  Moll  in  Charleston,  in  the 
Northeast,  and  overseas.  It  may  also  be  worth  investigating  it  some 
copies  of  Theus  portraits  were  the  work  of  Moll,  since  a  number  of 
Charleston  families  commissioned  work  by  both  attists. 

Finally,  I  would  like  to  state  my  gratitude  to  the  many  individuals 
in  Austria,  Canada,  and  the  United  States  for  their  assistance  in  my 
research,  for  copies  of  necessary  documents,  and  their  expett  advice. 
Special  thanks  go  to  MESDA  and  its  staff  fot  a  research  grant  in  the 
winter  of  1993  and  for  their  always  friendly  help  in  preparing  this 
publication. 

HELENE  RILEY  is  Professor  of  GemiiVi  at  Clemsou  U>iiversity. 
She  discovered  Bernard  Moll  while  at  MESDA  as  a  Moeller  Research 
Fellow  in  December  ipp3. 


36  JOURNAL    OF    EARLY    SOUTHERN    DECORATIVE    ARTS  SUMMER    I99S 


Appendix 

Transcription  of  the  index 
to  Bernard  Moll's  profile  album 


This  is  a  transcription  of  the  index  found  in  the  back  of  the  al- 
bum. Column  I  gives  the  name  as  it  was  inscribed  in  the  index,  and 
column  2  gives  the  page  number.  Whereas  Matter  underlined  the 
numbers  that  indicate  the  verso  side,  here  rand  v  for  recto  and  verso 
are  used;  otherwise  the  itregular  punctuation  of  the  original  has 
been  retained.  The  dates  in  column  3  are  those  written  on  the  pro- 
files. Column  4  provides  the  complete  caption  that  appears  under 
the  profile. 

The  index  does  not  contain  entries  tor  pages  82  and  83.  The  indi- 
viduals represented  are  Mis  Newmann  of  Charleston,  1785  (82r);  J. 
Somarvall,  1785  (82v);  Mr.  Beach,  1785  {83r),  and  the  unidentified 
profile  that  is  assumed  to  be  either  Bernard  Moll  or  his  brother, 
William  Berczy  (83V).  Page  84r  is  blank,  and  the  index  begins  on  84V 
and  continues  on  both  sides  of  page  85,  the  last  page  of  the  album. 

Profiles  that  are  reproduced  in  this  article  are  indicated  by  an  as- 
terisk before  the  name. 

Listing  m  index,  in  pa^e 

order  in  which  It  appears  no.         Date         caption  under  profik 

A. 
Mr:  Armstrong  73V  Folio  ~}  is  missing  from  the  album. 

B. 
Mr  Born  8r  1783         dc  Born. 

"Mr  Berkmeyer  20v       1784         Mr.  Berkmeyer  from  Hamburg  in  Charleston 

Mr  Brucher  25r        1783         Mr  Brucher 


CHARLESTON    S    DRAWING    MASTER    BERNARD    ALBRECHT    MOLL 


37 


Luting  in  index,  in 


uipu 


niier  profile 


'Mr.  Behagen 
'Mrs  V.  Braun 
*Mr.  Berisford 
'Mrs.  [Berisford] 
"Mr  Brown  Jac: 
'[Mr]  Bredemeyer 
•[Mr]  Boos 
[Mr]  Bencke 
[Mr  ]  Boden 
'Mr:  Brown  Jos. 
Mr.  Braun 
'Mr:  Beekman 

'Ms  Caroline 
'Mr  Chion 
'Mr  Chion  Jun: 

Mr  Deslandes 
Ms  Deslandes 
Mr  Deslandes 
[Mr.]  Delius 
[Mr]  Deslandes 
Mrs:  V  Doren 
'Mr  Dreyton 
*Mr  Davis 


33V 

1784 

35V 

1784 

39V 

1784 

40V 

1784 

45V 

1784 

5ir 

1783 

55r 

1783 

5Sr 

1783 

6ir 

1783 

71V 

1785 

79r 

80V 

1785 

36r 

.783 

36V 

1784 

37V 

1784 

3or 

1783 

3ir 

1783 

3'r 

1783 

5or 

1783 

39r 

1783 

63r 

1783 

66v 

1784 

-J  IV 

1785 

Mr  Behagen  from  Coppenhagen  in  Charleston 

M^  van  Braun  from  Amsterdam  in  Charleston 

Mr  Berestord  of  Charleston 

M'^  Biristord.  from  Charleston 

Mr  Charles  Brown  of  Charleston 

Mr;  Bredemeyer. 

Mr:  Boos. 

Mr:  Bencke  de  Hambourg,  en  Phyladelphie 

Mr:  Boden  de  Hambourg  en  Phyladelphie. 

Mr:  Joseph  Brown  at  Charleston 

Folio  79  is  missing  from  the  album. 

Mr  Charles  Beekman  at  Charleston 

C. 

Caroline  chez  Mr.  Deslandes 

Mr.  Chion  from  Amsterdam  in  Charleston 

MrChion  Jun:  from  Amsterdam  in  Charleston 

D. 

Mr  Deslandes,  de  Bruxelle. 

Mad-  Deslandes 

Mr  Deslandes,  |un. 

Mr  Delius 

Mr  Deslandes  juvin: 

Mad:  van  Doren  de  Philadelphie 

Mr.  Jacob  Dreyton  at  Charleston 

MR:  NX^n  Davis,  at  Charleston 


Mr  Emeroth 
'Mr  Edwards 


Mr  Emeroth  de  Hombourg  en  Philadelphie 
Mr  Edwards  Major  at  Charleston 


Mrs  Fohrmann 
Ms  Fohrmann 
[Mr]  Fohrmann 
[Mr]  Fohrmann 
*[Mr|  Fohrmann 
Mr.  Fiihrer 

'Ms  Fraser  Polv 


l6r 

1-83 

I7r 

1783 

igr 

1783 

i7r 

1-83 

28r 

1783 

40  r 

1783 

43V      1784 


Mad™.  Fohrmann. 

Mad'^  Fohrmann. 

Mr.  Fohrmann 

Mr  Ferd:  Fohrmann 

Mr  Franc:  Fohrmann 

Major  Fuhrer  fon  den  amerikans:  Trouppen  in 

Phvladelphia. 

Ms  Fraser  from  Charleston. 


JOURNAL    OF    E.\RLY    SOUTHERN    DECORATIVE    ARTS 


SUMMER    1995 


Listing  in  mdt'x.  in 

P'W 

order  in  which  it  appears 

no^ 

Date 

'Mr  Fraser 

5IV 

1784 

'Mrs  [Fraser] 

52V 

1784 

*Mr  [Fraser]  Alexand 

5.^v 

1784 

*Ms  [Fraser]  Poly 

S4V 

1784 

•Ms  [Fraser]  Betsi 

55V 

1784 

'Ms  [Fraser]  Judy 

56V 

1784 

'Ms  [Fraser]  Nancy 

57V 

1784 

'Ms  [Fraser]  Suky 

58V 

1784 

'Mr  [Fraser]  James 

60V 

1784 

'Mrs  Garden 

Z9V 

1784 

*Mr  [Garden] 

30V 

1784 

Mr  Gotze 

45r 

1783 

Mrs  Gross 

67r 

1783 

'Mr:  Gaer 

74r 

1784 

•Mr:  Hall  John 

i6v 

1784 

'Mr.  Heubert 

17V 

1784 

'Mr.  [Heubert]  Daniel 

iiv 

1784 

Ms.  Hess 

49r 

1783 

Ms.  Holden 

6or 

1783 

'Ms  Hayn 

61V 

1784 

Mrs  Hxxx 

62r 

1783 

Mr.  Herlitz 

64r 

1783 

Mr:  Hasenkleber 

69r 

1783 

'Ms.  Huger 

69V 

1784 

Mr  Hubley 

7ir 

1783 

•Mr  Hall 

7v 

1784 

•Ms.  [Hall]  Betsy 

8v 

1784 

'Ms.  [Hall]  Sara 

9V 

1784 

■Ms.  [Hall]  Mariane 

lOV 

1784 

Mr.  Heidinger 

ilr 

1783 

'Ms.  Hall  Louise 

IIV 

1784 

•Ms.  [Hall]  Juillette 

u 

1784 

captu 


(fider  silhouette 


'Ms.  [Hall]  Hennette 
'Ms.  [Hall]  Caroline 


1784 


Mr  Fraser  at  Charleston 
Mrs:  Fraser.  at  Charleston 
Mr  Alex:  Fraser  at  Charleston. 
Ms.  Poly  Fraser  at  Charleston 
Ms  Betsi  Fraser  at  Charleston 
Ms  Judy  Fraser  at  Charleston 
Ms. Nancy  Fraser  at  Charleston 
Ms  Suky  Fraser  at  Charleston 
Mr.  James  Fraser  at  Charleston. 

G. 

Mrs  Garden,  from  Charleston. 

Mr  Garden  from  Charleston 

Mr  Gotze  Danoi  en  Phyladelphie 

Mistris  Gross  de  Philadelphie 

Mr.  Gaer  from  Landkaster  in  Charleston 

H. 

Master  John  Hall,  from  Charleston 

Judge  Heyward 

Mr.  Daniel  ["Heubert "  crossed  out]  Heyward 

from  Charleston 

Mis  Petzi  Hess  de  Phyladelphie 

Mis  Cath:  Hoolden  des  quackers  in  Phyladephie 

Ms  Hayn  at  Charleston. 

de  Philadelphia 

Mr  Herlitz  de  Neujork. 

Mr  Hasenkleber  de  Philadelphie 

Ms:  Marv  Huger  at  Charleston 

Mr.  Hubley  Collonel  Americain  en 

Philadelphie 

Mr  George  Hall  of  Charleston 

Miss  Betsy  Hall  of  Chadeston 

Miss  Sarah  Hall,  ot  Charleston 

Miss  Maria  Hall  of  Charleston 

Mr.  Heydinger. 

Miss  Louisa  Hall  ot  Charleston 

Miss  Juliett  Hall  of  Charleston. 

Miss  Henrietta  Hall  ot  Charleston. 

Miss  Carolina  Hall,  from  Charleston. 


CHARLESTON    S    DRAWING    MASTER    BERNARD    ALBRECHT    MOLL 


Listing  in  index,  lu 
order  in  which  it  affiean 


Cttption 


under  ulhouette 


"Mr.  George  [Hall 
'Mr.  Hessling 
'Mr  Hubert 
'Mrs  Hubert 

'Mr  Harrelbrink 
'Mr  Henning 


15 

1784 

ist 

1784 

77r 

17S4 

78r 

1784 

8ir 

178s 

8or 

1784 

1784 


M^ister  George  Hall  of  Charleston 

Mr  Hessling  de  Hollande  a  Charleston. 

Mr  Hubert  from  Holland  in  Charleston 

Mistris  Hubert  from  Kurei;ao  in  the 

West  Indies  in  Charleston 

Mr  Hrrelbrinck  from  Prussia  at  Charleston 

Mr  Henning  de  Frankfort  sur  le  mayn 

a  Charleston 

Mr  Richard  Hutson  Intendent  of  Charleston 


josephus  II 
'Mr  Inglis 
Ms  Joassens 
'Mr  Irwing 
'Mr  Irwing  doct. 

Mrs  Kunzmann 
Mr  Kohler 
Mrs  Kapli 
•MrsKrause 
Mr  Krause 

•Mr.  Lecke 
Mrs  Levi 

Maximilian 

Mrs.  Moll 

Ms.  Moll  Jeanette 

[Ms.]  Moll  Suzette 

I  Ms.  I  Moll  Eleonore 

Mr:  Munschi 

•[Mr.]  Maerter 
'Ms.  Mukenfus 
Mr  Matzcn 

[Mr.]  Meyer 
'[Mr.]  Middleton 


ir 

n.d. 

3IV 

1784 

.'7r 

1783 

70V 

1785 

75V 

178s 

-.'"' 

1783 

47  r 

1783 

66r 

1783 

igv 
S6r 


1784 
1783 


9r 
lOr 

1783 
1783 

I2r 

1783 

i.ir 

1783 

I4r 

1783 

29  r 

178.^ 

48V 

1784 

6sr 
65V 


1784 


Josephus  II  I.  R.  The  present  Emperor 

Mr  Inglis  from  Charleston 

Mad'"'  Joassens,  d'Anvers 

Mr  Irwing  at  Charleston 

Mr.  Irwing  Doct:  at  Charleston 

K. 

Mad"^  Kunzmann. 

Mr  Kcihier  Danois,  en  Phyladelphie 

Mde  Kapli  de  Philadelphie. 

Mrs  Krause  at  Charleston 

Folio  79  is  missing  from  the  album. 

L. 

Mr  Lecke  from  Hamburg  in  Charleston 

Mistris  Levi.  Juife  en  Phyladelphie. 

M. 

Maximilian  of  Austria 

Mad™  de  Moll. 

Jeanette  de  Moll. 

Suzette  de  Moll. 

Eleonore  de  Moll. 

Mr  Munschi.  a  Viennne.  des  Etats 

d'Hyderalq. 

Mr  Maerter 

Ms  Muckenfus  from  Charleston 

Mr:  Matzen.  Capitain  du  Neptun,  Danois 

en  Phyladelphie 

Mr.  Meyer  de  Neujork 

Mr  Middleton  at  Charleston  + 


40 


JOURNAL    OF    E.\RLY    SOUTHERN    DECORATIVE    ARTS 


SUMMER    199s 


Listing  in  mdt-x.  m 
order  w  which  it  appears 

*[Mr.]  Motte 
•Mrs.  Marschall 
Mr:  Maetsch 


no.  Date 

67V  1784 

68v  1784 

72r  1783 


Mr  Oesterly  52r        1783 

Mrs  [Oescerly]  53r        1783 


captii 


nder  siihout 


Mr  Motte.  at  Charleston 

Mrs.  MarschaJl  at  Charleston 

Mr  Maetsch  de  Hamborg  en  Philadelphie 

O. 

Mister  Oesterly  Capitain  de  la  Milice 
en  Phyladelphie 
Mistris  Oesterly 


*Mr  Purcell 
•Mrs  [Purcell] 
Mr  Perfetta 
*Ms:  Purcell  Nancy 
•Ms:  [Purcell]  Jeny 
*Ms:  [Purcell]  Petsy 
'Mr:  Purcell  Henry 
*Mr  Pxxx 
Ms.  Parker 


22V 

23V 
24r 
24V 
25V 
26v 
27V 
32V 


Ms 


1784 
1784 
1783 
1784 
1784 
1784 
1784 
1784 


la  Par.  .  .  [illeg.]     76r       1785 


Mr  Rugker 

I5r 

1783 

•Mr  Readhead 

i8v 

1783 

Mrs  Reinc 

.14'- 

1783 

*Ms.  V.  Rhein 

34V 

1783 

Mr.  Reine 

35r 

1783 

•Ms  Rumiz 

4IV 

1784 

'Mrs:  Rumiz 

42V 

1784 

Mr  Ruge 

46r 

1783 

•Mr  Rutledges 

62V 

1784 

•Mr  Rutledges  Eduard 

63V 

1784 

•Mr  Rutledges  Willam 

64V 

1784 

Mr  Seivert 

2or 

1783 

Mr.  Schuz 

2ir 

1783 

Mrs.  Schliz 

22r 

1783 

'Ms.  Stark 

28v 

1784 

Ms.  Schiquier 

38r 

1783 

•Mr  Stuermann 

38V 

1784 

Mr  Purcell,  minister  from  Charleston 

Mrs.  Purcell  from  Charleston 

Mr  Perfetta. 

Ms  Nancy  Purcell  from  Chadeston 

Ms  Jeny  Purcell.  from  Charleston. 

Ms  Petsi  Purcell.  from  Charleston 

Mr  Henry  Purcell  from  Charleston 

Mr  P  .  .  .  from  Coppenhagen  in  Charleston 

Mis  Petzi  Parcker  en  Phyladelphie. 

Folio  ^6  IS  missing  from  the  album. 

R. 

Mr  Rugker 

Mr  Readhead  from  Soud  Carolina  to 

Charleston 

Made  Reine.  chez  Mr.  Deslandes 

Ms  van  Rhein  from  Amsterdam  in  Charleston 

Mr  Reine 

Mis  Rumiz  from  Charleston 

Mrs  Rumiz  from  Chadeston 

Mr  Ruge  de  Hambourg  en  Phyladelphie 

Mr  Fredrik  Rutledges  at  Charleston 

Mr  Edward  Rutledges  at  Charleston 

Mr  Willam  Rutledges  at  Charleston 

S. 

P.  Prosper  Seivert 

Mr  Schiitz. 

Mad""  Schutz. 

Ms  Stark  from  Charleston 

Mad:  Schiquie 

Mr  Stuermann  from  Holland  in  Chadeston 


CHARLESTON    S    DRAWING    MASTER    BERNARD    ALBRECHT    MOLL 


Listing  m  index,  in 
order  in  which  it  appears 


caption  under  silhouette 


Mr  Sanders 

Mrs  Sanders 
*Mr.  Salser 
*Ms.  Salser 
Ms.  Schmid 
'Mr.  Schmid 
'Mr  Seibels 
Ms.  Schall 
Mr.  Sayer 
Mr:  Smyrh 

"Mr  Tunno 
Mrs:  Thully 
Mis  P.  Thully 
Mrs.  Terons 

Mr.  Vats 
Ms  Vuillam 

'Mr.  Wilson 

Mr.  Ziegler 


42r       1783 


43r 
46V 

47V 
48  r 
49V 
50V 

54r 
70r 
76V 

81V 
4ir 
44r 
731- 


1785 
1784 
1784 
1783 
1784 
1784 
1783 
1783 
1785 


1783 
1783 


77V       1785 
26r       1783 


Mr  Sanders  de  Hambourg  a  Neujork  en 

Amerique 

Madame  Sanders  de  Phyladelphie 

Mr.  Salser  from  Frankfort  in  Charleston 

M°  Salser  from  Charleston 

Catherine  Schmid,  de  Phyladelphie 

Mr  Schmidt  from  Stutgard  in  Charleston 

Mr  Seibel  from  Elberfeld  in  Charleston 

Miss  Schall  N.  de  Bethlehem  en  Pensilvanie 

Mr.  Sayer  de  Hollande  en  Philadelphie. 

Folio  76  IS  missing  from  the  album. 

T. 

Mr.  George  Tunno  at  Charleston. 
Madame  Thully  de  Phyladelphie. 
Mis  Moly  Tully  de  Phyladelphie 
Folio  ■'i  is  missing  from  the  album. 

V. 

Mr  Vats  a  Vienne  d'Engleterre 

Mad'^  Vuillam. 

W. 

Mr.  D.  Wilson  at  Charleston 

Z. 

Mr  Ziegler. 


4i 


JOURNAL    OF    EARLY    SOUTHERN    DECORATIVE    ARTS 


SUMMER    199s 


L 


m 

e    m 


7.  Mr.  Gaer  from  Landkaster  in  Charleston  (p.  74r).  17S4. 


8.  Mr.  Hessling  from  Holland  in  Charleston  (p.  y^r).  1/84. 


CHARLESTON    S    DRAWING    MASTER    BERNARD    ALBRECHT    MOLL 


43 


igfiia.^ 


9.  Mr.  Hubert  from  Holland  in  Charleston  {p.  yyr).  17S4.  I  hi 
nujy  be  Charles  Nicholas  Hubert,  a  iiatire  of  Amsterdam,  who 
died  ill  iSii  having  lived  in  Charleston  for  28  years.  Charleston 
Courier,  j  September  1811. 


10.  Mistress  Hubert  from  Kure(,ao  m  the  West  Indies  in 
Charleston  (p.  j8r).  1784. 


JOURNAL    OF    EARLY    SOUTHERN    DECORATIVE    ARTS 


SUMMER    1995 


m 


^^ 


^aS^-^^ 


7^  SC:.^,,-^^!^^ 


II.  Mr.  Henning  from  Frankfurt  am  Main  in  Charleston 
{p.  8or).  1784. 


L 


12.  Mr.  Harrelbrinck  from  Prussia  at  Charleston  (p.  Sir).  1784. 


CHARLESTON    S    DRAWING    MASTER    BERNARD    ALBRECHT    MOLL 


13.  Miss  Newmann  ot  Charleston  (p.  Sir).  1784. 


14.  Mr.  Beach  (p.  8}).  1784. 


46 


JOURNAL    OF    EARLY    SOUTHERN    DECORATIVE    ARTS  SUMMER    1995 


15.  Mr.  George  Hall  of  Charleston  {p.  jv).  1784.  George 
Abbott  Hall  was  a  merchant  and  collector  of  customs  in 
Charleston.  His  wife  Louisa  predeceased  him  in  17S1.  This  folic 
ivhich  hears  a  silhouette  only  on  its  verso,  was  erroneously 
bound  into  the  book  between  folios  4  and  $. 


16.  Miss  Betsy  Hall  of  Charleston  (p.  %v).  1784.  Elizabeth  Hall 
married  Robert  Hazlehurst  of  Charleston. 


CHARLESTON    S    DRAWING    MASTER    BERNARD    ALBRECHT    MOLL 


47 


ly.  Miss  Sarah  Hall  ot  Charleston  (p.  gvl  i~S^. 


i8.  Miss  Maria  Hall  of  Charleston  (p.  lov).  1-84.  Maria  Hall 
married  John  Stanyarne  Brisbane  in  ijgs- 


JOURNAL    OF    EARLY    SOUTHERN    DECORATIVE    ARTS        SUMMER    1995 


19-  Miss  Louisa  Hall  of  Charleston  (p.  iiv).  1784. 


2.0.  Miss  Juliett  Hall  of  Charleston  (p.  I2i>).  1784. 


CHARLESTON    S    DRAWING    MASTER    BERNARD    ALBRECHT    MOLL 


II.  Miss  Henrietta  Hall  of  Charleston  (p.  /,'rA  1784. 


Miss  Carolina  Hall  tVom  Charleston  (p.  141').  17 


50 


JOURNAL    OF    EARLY    SOUTHERN    DECORATIVE    ARTS        SUMMER    I99S 


imti 


23.  Master  George  Hall  ot  Charleston  f/).  isv).  1784. 


24.  Master  John  Hall  From  Charleston  {p.  i6v).  1784. 


CHARLESTON    S    DRAWING    MASTER    BERNARD    ALBRECHT    MOLL 


"^mmmfmm^^ 


iffm 


i5.  ludgc  Heyvvard  (p.  171').  17S4.  This  probably  depict  Judge 
ThoiHiU  Heywiird.  Jr.  (1-46-1X09),  who  served  as  judge  of  the 
Court  of  General  Sessio)is  and  Common  Pleas  from  1779  to  i-Sg. 


26.  Mr.  Readhead  trom  South  Carolina  in  Charleston  {p. 

iSv).  17S4. 


JOURNAL    OF    EARLY    SOUTHERN    DECORATIVE    ARTS        SUMMER    I995 


2/.  Mr.  Lecke  from  Hamburg  m  Charleston  (p.  igv).  17S 


28.  Mr.  Berkmeyer  from  Hamburg  in  Charleston 
(p.  20v).  17S4. 


CHARLESTON    S    DRAWING    MASTER    BERNARD    ALBRECHT    MOLL 


IT 


^tm 


■--•Jf^v^.- 


I7*^t- 


■J 


29.  Mr.  Djniel  Heyward  from  Charleston  (p.  211').  1784. 
Daniel  Heyward  (1774-1798)  was  the  only  child  of  Thomas 
Heyward  afid  his  first  wife,  Elizabeth  Matthews. 


->^^- 


30.  Mr.  Purcell,  Minister  from  Charleston  (p.  22x1).  1784. 
Hetiry  Purcell  (i~^g—i8o2)  was  the  rector  of  St.  Michael's 
Church  in  Charleston. 


54 


JOURN.'kL    OF    EARLY    SOUTHERN    DECORATIVE    ARTS        SUMMER    I99S 


■" 


fit'*'*'.  Q^t^  »wg^S«<>-j>-g', 


f^'^-h 


/r«v  , 


31.  Mrs.  Purcell  trom  Charleston  (p.  2^v).  1784,  This  profile  is 
of  Henry  Purcell's  first  ivifie.  whose  name  is  unknown. 


,£^ 


1 


( 


I 


32.  Ms.  Nancy  Purcell  from  Charleston  (p.  241').  1784. 


CHARLESTON    S    DRAWING    MASTER    BERNARD    ALBRECHT    MOLL 


*■■ 

vf- 

#         . 

'   -^^■' 

W  ^< 

^^ 

i 

'1 

1 

'  ^^iB"" 

/7yJt.                          1 

J 

<»V    I 


1^^ 


33.  Ms.  Jeny  Purcell  trom  Charleston  (p.  2w).  17S4. 


34.  Ms.  Petsi  Purcell  trom  Charleston  (p.  26v).  1784. 


56 


JOURNAL    OF    EARLY    SOUTHERN    DECORATIVE    ARTS        SUMMER    1995 


35.  Mr.  Henry  Purcell  from  Charleston  (p.  27v).  1784. 


36.  Ms.  Stark  from  Charleston  (p.  iSv).  1784. 


CHARLESTON    S    DRAWING    MASTER    BERNARD    ALBRECHT    MOLL 


I"     .■■      i^' 


1, 

4 


tm. 


mJk     mm 


37.  Mrs.  Garden  from  Charleston  {p.  igv).  1-784.  Probably  38.  Mr.  Garden  from  Charleston  (p.  }ov).  ^84.  This  may  be 

Anil  Gibbei  Garden  (i-d^-f).  who  married  Alexander  Garden.  Alexander  Garden  (i-^r-iSig).  the  son  of  the  famous  naturalist 

Jr..  in  i~S4.  of  the  same  name. 


JOURNAL    OF    EARLY    SOUTHERN    DECORATIVE    ARTS        SUMMER    I99S 


mmmm 


/?*'#. 


^9.  Mr.  Inglis  from  Charleston  (p.  ^iv).  n 


.Kk  -^. 


i'\.  ^^^^tr^ 


/»♦. 


40.  Mr.  P  .  .  .  trom  Coppenhagen  in  Charleston 

{p.  i2v).  17S4. 


1 


CHARLESTON    S    DRAWING    MASTER    BERNARD    ALBRECHT    MOLL 


llf*. 


41.  Mr. 
17S4. 


Behagen  from  Coppenhagen  in  Charleston  (p.  }}i'). 


42.  Ms.  van  Rhein  trom  Amsterdam  in  Charleston 
(p.  341')-  1784. 


60 


JOURNAL    OF    EARLY    SOUTHERN    DECORATIVE    ARTS        SUMMER    1995 


mm'^^m'amrFm 


i,W^. 


/W-f. 


43.  Ms.  van  Braun  from  Amsterdam  in  Charleston  [p.  ^w). 
1784. 


44.  Mr.  Chion  from  Amsterdam  in  Charleston  (p.  }6v).  1784. 
A  Phillip  William  {Guillaume)  Chion  (c.  I7^$-I7g6},  formerly 
of  Amsterdam,  was  a  merchant  in  Charleston.  Columbian 
Herald,  19  May  1796. 


CHARLESTON    S    DRAWING    MASTER    BERNARD    ALBRECHT    MOLL 


^'"■""■Mi<<"*pmpp 


^wmmmiiiKfi 


-"    -"-''^  '•  -..  -^^      _    ^     1,.,^',  -•'-'' ^^  ..'^j::«L 

4v  Mr.  Chion  Jun.  from  Amsterdam  in  Charleston  (p.  ijv). 
1784.  A  John  Francis  Chion  (c.  1768-181$),  a  native  of  Amster- 
dam, was  described  as  a  grocer  in  Charleston.  Charleston  City 
Gazette,  25  October  181$. 


tlWf'. 


46.  Mr.  Stuermann  from  Holland  in  Charleston  (p.  }8v). 
1784.  On  g  February  178s,  one  Henry  Stuerma?in  announced  in 
the  South  Carolina  State  Gazette  and  Daily  Advertiser  that  he 
was  planning  to  leave  Charleston  and  requested  that  debts  due 
to  him  be  settled. 


62 


JOURNAL    OF    E.ARLY    SOUTHERN    DECORATIVE    ARTS        SUMMER    1995 


/>»!«». 


.-i 


47,  Mr.  Beresford  of  Charleston  (p.  }9v).  1784.  This  may 
portray  Richard  Beresford  (17^^-180}),  who  practiced  law 
a>id  icrt'cd  for  a  few  months  in  178}  as  lieutenant  governor 
of  South  Caivlina. 


mm 


M. 


i^ 


""'^W 


nif^. 


48.  Mrs.  Beresford  ol"  Charleston  {p.  40V).  1784.  Ann 
Ferguson,  widow  of  Charles  Elliott,  ivas  the  wife  of  Richard 
rd 


CHARLESTON    S    DRAWING    MASTER    BERNARD    ALBRECHT    MOLL 


63 


/7«'f. 


49.  Mis  Rumiz  from  Charleston  (p.  4IV).  i~S4. 


50.  Mrs.  Rumiz  (rom  Charleston  (p.  42V).  1784. 


64 


JOURNAL    OF    EARLY    SOUTHERN    DECORATIVE    ARTS        SUMMER    1995 


i^ 


/X**-. 


51.  Ms.  Fraser  from  Charleston  (p.  4_w)-  i~S4. 


\ 


17^41. 


52.  Mr  Richard  Hutson,  Intendant  ot  Charleston  \p.  441 
1784.  Richard  Hutson  ivas  a  delegate  to  the  Continental 
Congress  and  signed  the  Articles  of  Confederation,  He  also 
served  as  a  judge  and  as  Charleston 's  first  Intendant  after 
South  Carolina 's  incorporation  in  178^. 


CHARLESTON    S    DRAWING    MASTER    BERNARD    ALBRECHT    MOLL 


65 


""im 


••    r.^. 


I 


S3.  Mr.  Charles  Brown  of  Charleston  (p.  4)v).  i~S4.  Several 
men  of  this  name  lived  in  Charleston  around  this  time. 


s 


/ytf-H- 


idlS 


S4.  Mr.  Salser  from  Frankfort  in  Charleston  (p.  46V).  1^84. 


66 


JOURNAL    OF    E.-\RLY    SOUTHERN    DECORATIVE    ARTS        SUMMER    1995 


l^-^wp 


iPM^^vvv^npiipii 


/rifif 


/7y^. 


iiHii 


55.  Mrs.  Salser  from  Charleston  (p.  471').  1784. 


56.  Ms.  Muckenfus  from  Charleston  (p.  481')-  17S4. 


CHARLESTON    S    DRAWING    MASTER    BERNARD    ALBRECHT    MOLL 


67 


/7«^. 


'ammmmmfni 


A 


/»4 


V\ 


57.  Mr.  Schmidt  from  Stutgard  in  Charleston  (p.  491').  1784.  58.  Mr.  Seibel  From  Elberfeld  in  Charleston  (p.  sov).  178 


68 


JOURN.AL    OF    EARLY    SOUTHERN    DECORATIVE    ARTS        SUMMER    I995 


wiRliapap 


59.  Mr.  Fraser  at  Charleston  {p.  $iv).  17 


60.  Mrs.  Fraser  at  Charleston  (p.  pp).  i/S 


CHARLESTON    S    DRAWING    MASTER    BERNARD    ALBRECHT    MOLL 


69 


6i.  Mr.  Alex:  Fraser  at  Charleston  {p.  wrA  1784. 


62.  Ms.  Poly  Fraser  at  Charleston  {p.  S4v).  17&4- 


70  JOURNAL    OF    EARLY    SOUTHERN    DECORATIVE    ARTS        SUMMER    I995 


/?**• 


% 


63.  Ms.  Betsi  Fraser  at  Charleston  {p.  $$1').  17S4. 


64.  Ms.  Judy  Fraser  at  Charleston  (p.  ^6v).  //i 


CHARLESTON    S    DRAWING    MASTER    BERNARD    ALBRECHT    MOLL 


^v<^^«H^i^mip*v<wmpq 


/7M*. 


65.  Ms.  Nancy  Eraser  at  Charleston  {p.  S7v).  1^84, 


66.  Ms.  Suky  Fraser  at  Charleston  (p.  sStO.  17 


JOURNAL    OF    EARLY    SOUTHERN    DECORATIVE    ARTS        SUMMER    I995 


^ 
^ 


1794- 


67.  Mr.  James  Fraser  at  Charleston  (p.  6ov).  17S4. 


68.  Ms.  Hayn  at  Charleston  (p.  611').  17S4.  This  mny  be 
Alice  Hayne,  whose  portrait  Ierei7iiah  Them  (d.  1^74)  painted. 


Charleston's  drawing  master  Bernard  albrecht  moll 


r 


) 


nit4' 


i 


-    i. 


/7*4^ 


69.  Mr.  Fredrik  Rutledges  at  Charleston  f/).  62v).  1784.  70.  Mr.  Edward  Rutledges  at  Charleston  (p.  631').  1784. 


74 


JOURNAL    OF    EARLY    SOUTHERN    DECORATIVE    ARTS        SUMMER    1995 


71.  Mr.  William  Rutledges  at  Charleston  (p.  641').  17S4. 


^m 


mk 


72.  Mr.  Middleton  at  Charleston  +  (p.  6sv).  i''84.  The  cross 
after  the  name  indicates  that  the  subject  was  deceased.  While 
Middleton  was  an  extremely  common  name  in  Charleston,  it  is 
possible  that  this  is  Thomas  Middleton,  husband  of  Frances 
Motte,  who  died  in  1784. 


CHARLESTON    S    DRAWING    MASTER    BERNARD    ALBRECHT    MOLL 


B^ 


ntf^- 


.tmmtm^mHibi 


ipMMIIPPi"^<«*«*^'P<MiP*''''<^''"^ 


^- 


73.  Mr.  Jacob  Dreyton  at  Charleston  (p.  66v).  1784.  Jacob 
DrdytoH  id.  1S06)  wdi  an  attflnuy  and  judge  in  Charleston. 


/Z«<^. 


i^^itB&Mte^l 


74.  Mr  Motte  at  Charleston  (p.  67v).  1784. 


76 


JOURNAL    OF    EARLY    SOUTHERN    DECORATIVE    ARTS        SUMMER    I99S 


It*^. 


75.  Mrs.  Marschall  at  Charleston  {p.  dSv).  i~S-f. 


r 


H 


1 


n^i^ 


76.  Ms.  Mary  Huger  at  Charleston  (p.  6t)v).  rS^.  A  Ma 
Golightly  Huger  married  Hugh  Rutledge  in  lySS. 


CHARLESTON    S    DRAWING    MASTER    BERNARD    ALBRECHT    MOLL 


» 


«l»- 


n»»- 


,^i^ 


Mr.  Iiwiiit;  ai  (.Charleston  (p.  70v).  1^84. 


78.  Mr.  Joseph  Brown  at  Charleston  {p.  7iv).  i:'Sf. 


78 


JOURNAL    OF    EARLY    SOUTHERN    DECORATIVE    ARTS        SUMMER    I995 


mm 


/7trjf. 


I 


79.  Mr.  William  Davis  at  Charleston  (p.  J2v).  1784. 


I^^^PP* 


3t*«wi/>!j^ 


z^***- 


■isaiiiiiMiikMMMMiiiiiiiiiiMiyiiiM^ 
80.  Mr.  Edwards  Major  at  Charleston  (p.  741')-  178$. 


CHARLESTON    S    DRAWING    MASTER    BERNARD    ALBRECHT    MOLL 


79 


.ftr.J^ 

<*%^.  Sf,^/.- 

^GSa^ 

■ii^^ 

I7»!t 

:j^»mm^   . 

'  /.    - 


■M 


5i.  Mr.  Irwing,  Doct.  at  Charleston  [p.  jsv).  IJ84. 


82.  Mr.  Daniel  Wilson  at  Charleston  (p.  jyv).  178^. 


80 


JOURNAL    OF    EARLY    SOUTHERN    DECORATIVE    ARTS        SUMMER    1995 


MHiiil 


^m 


83.  Mrs.  Krause  at  Charleston  {p.  jSv).  ijS^. 


N4.  Mr.  (_;harlcs  Bccknian  at  tJiailcstuii  (y>.  A'orA  /7<?5'. 


CHARLESTON    S    DRAWING    MASTER    BERNARD    ALBRECHT    MOLL 


■P 


lum^^ 


cjftr>-  Ofxi^rmm-  jft^n-  n* 


n 


,/' V'^<y^7>l  0^A  ^i5»-  <!^^ 


/7/«'j 


dMiiiariUildM 


8s.  Mr.  George  Tunno  at  Charleston  (p.  Siv).  1-8$.  86.  H.  Somer\'all  (p.  Siv).  iSs- 


82  JOURNAL    OF    EARLY    SOUTHERN    DECORATIVE    ARTS        SUMMER    I995 


NOTES 

1.  The  City  Gazette  or  The  Daily  Advertiser,  p.  2  col. 3. 

2.  Inventories  of  Charleston  County,  S.C.,  vol.  B,  1787-1793,  p.  154,  February  16.  1789.  The 
inventory  notes  a  variety  of  weapons  and  a  pocket  compass. 

3.  Charleston  County,  S.C.  Letters  Testamentary,  1786-1792,  p.  134,  23  July  1788. 

4.  Osterreichische  Nationalbibliothek  (Austrian  National  Library,  henceforth  cited  as 
ONB)  Cod.  Ser.  n.  3517,  fol.  19.  For  gracious  assistance  in  obtaining  a  copy  of  this  letter  and  of 
many  other  relevant  documents  in  the  manu.script  collection  ot  the  Austrian  National  Library 
I  am  very  much  indebted  to  the  director.  Dr.  Eva  Irblich.  LInles.s  noted  otherwise,  all  transla- 
tions from  the  German  are  by  the  author. 

5.  The  term  "silhouette "  originated  in  Europe  soon  after  the  middle  of  the  eighteenth  cen- 
tury, named  after  the  Finance  Minister  of  Louis  XV  of  France,  Etienne  de  Silhouette,  who  cut 
shades  as  a  hobby.  In  America  in  the  eighteenth  century  the  descriptions  "profile,"  "shades,"  or 
"shadows"  were  used.  In  his  Charleston  advertisements,  Moll  referred  to  silhouettes  as  "pro- 
files." 

6.  Anna  Wells  Rutledge  does  not  discuss  profile  cutters  in  her  definitive  work.  Artists  in  the 
Life  of  Charleston  (Philadelphia:  American  Philosophical  Society,  1949),  although  Helen  and 
Nel  Laughon,  who  collect  and  research  silhouettes,  know  of  at  least  thirty  mostly  itinerant 
artists  who  cut  profiles  in  Charleston  in  the  nineteenth  century.  They  also  note  the  rarity  of  ex- 
tant examples  in  Charleston.  Discussions  with  Lisa  Denisevich,  Registrar  of  the  Gibbes  Muse- 
um of  Art  in  Charleston  and  Martha  R.  Severens,  Curator  of  the  Greenville  County  Museum 
of  Art  and  former  Registrar  of  Charleston's  Gibbes  Museum  also  failed  to  reveal  silhouettes  at- 
tributable to  Moll  among  their  holdings.  Museum  of  Early  Southern  Decorative  Arts  (MES- 
DA)  documentary  research  has  identified  at  least  four  arrists  who  cut  profiles  between  1804  and 
1820,  but  MESDA  field  research  did  not  uncover  any  extant  silhouettes  from  Charleston. 

7.  John  Andre  examines  the  family  roots  in  William  Berczy,  Co-Founder  of  Toronto:  A 
Sketch  by  John  Andre.  A  Canada  Centennial  Project  of  the  Borough  of  York  (Toronto;  Orto- 
print,  1967).  Berczy's  life  was  as  adventurous  as  his  older  brother's.  He  adopted  the  common 
short  form  of  Albrecht  (Berth  Berti,  or  Bertsi)  as  his  last  name  later  in  life.  Andre  believes  that 
Albrecht  was  nicknamed  "Bcrtzie"  bv  the  leader  of  a  band  of  Hungarian  bandits  who  held  him 
for  ransom,  but  since  the  abbreviation  "Bert"  (with  various  endings)  is  quite  common  tor  the 
names  Albrecht  and  Albert,  it  is  much  more  likely  that  he  was  called  "Bertsi"  by  his  family.  His 
Swiss  marriage  certificate  lists  his  name  as  "Albert  Guilaume  Berczy"  (p.  49). 

8.  Ibid.,  p.  48. 

9.  John  Andre  and  Hartmut  Froeschle,  "The  American  Expedition  ot  Emperor  Joseph  II 
and  Bernhard  Moll's  Silhouertes, "  in  The  Genrian  Contribution  to  the  BuiUing  of  the  Americas: 
Studies  in  Honor  ofKarlJ.R.  Amdt  (Worcester,  Mass.:  Clark  University  Press,  1977),  135-72,  n. 
7.  The  authors  credit  Helen  McCormack,  then  Director  ot  the  Gibbes  Art  Gallery  in 
Charleston,  with  unspecified  information  "about  the  former  fate  of  this  album." 

ID.  Andre  reproduced  some  of  the  profiles  depicting  Moll's  family  membets  in  his  1967  es- 
say on  Berczy. 

11.  Paramount  among  the  lattet  is  that  he  provided  a  list  ot  Moll's  silhouettes,  but  followed 
neither  the  album's  sequence  nor  its  numbering  nor  Matter's  index.  This  is  misleading  because 
it  both  hinders  the  identification  ot  the  silhouettes  and  leads  to  the  taJse  assumption  that  all 
the  profiles  were  numbered.  Misreadings  also  occur. 

12.  For  a  photocopy  of  the  entry  in  St.  Albans  baptismal  register  I  am  indebted  to  the 
Katholisches  Pfarramt  St.  Alban  in  Wallerstein.  The  document  is  significant  because  it  specifi- 
cally notes  that  his  father  belonged  to  the  nobilin,'  and  the  Aulic  Council  at  the  time. 


CHARLESTON    S    DRAWING    MASTER    BERNARD    ALBRECHT    MOLL 


M.  An  exhaustive  family  tree  is  found  in  Beate  Stocis  et  ai.  Berczy  (Ottawa:  National 
Gallery  of  Canada,  1991),  Appendix  A. 

14.  The  Aulic  Council  was  the  supreme  court  established  in  1501  by  the  Holy  Roman  Em- 
peror Maximilian  I.  Fiirstlich  Ottingen-Wallerstein'sches  Archiv,  Harburg.  Dienerakten.  13 
December  174s. 

15.  Cf.  letter  of  Count  Philipp  Carl  to  Legationsrat  Bernhard  Paul  von  Moll  (brother  of  Al- 
brecht  Theodor),  dated  September  g,  lyss.  Fiirstlich  Ottingen-Wallerstein'sches  Archiv,  Altere 
Kabinetts-Registratur  II.A.10.2.  no.  540. 

16.  One  of  the  Viennese  houses  in  which  the  Moll  family  resided  was  located  at  Habs- 
burggasse  5  (Braunerstrasse  8).  The  house  was  owned  by  Count  Maximilian  von  Cavriani, 
Court  Councillor  of  the  Exchequer,  and  was  among  "the  most  magnificent  residential  homes 
of  its  time."  Five  stories  high  and  with  a  base  of  14.000  square  feet,  it  featured  the  statue  of  a 
madonna  above  a  richly  stucco-decorated  portal.  Paul  Harrer:  Wien.  seme  Mauser,  Menscheti 
und  Kuhur  (Vienna:  Its  Hauses,  People,  and  Culture),  typescript  in  the  Wiener  Stadt-  und 
Landesarchiv,  1952,  vol.  6.  part  II,  p.  329.  1  am  indebted  to  Univ.-Doz.  Dr.  Ferdinand  Opil, 
Director  of  the  Wiener  Stadt-  und  Landesarchiv,  Vienna,  for  a  copy  of  this  research  paper. 

17.  Fred.  RogI  records,  among  others,  the  visit  of  Jean  Etienne  Guettard  of  the  Academie 
Royale,  Paris,  at  Moll's  Kabinett.  Cf  Fred.  Rbgl,  "L.  von  Fichtel  und  J.P.C.  von  Moll  und  ihre 
wissenschaftliche  Bedeutung"  (L.  von  Fichtel  and  J.P.C.  Moll  and  Their  Scholarly  Signifi- 
cance), Annalen  Naturhtstornches  Museum  U'/eH  84/A  (1982),  63-67. 

18.  Akademie  der  Bildenden  Kiinste,  Archives.  Entry  in  the  "Mattikelbuch"  is  dated  July  ~, 
1762.  ficrczy  lists  an  entry  for  May  \s,  1762,  in  the  "Aufnahms-Protocoll  fUr  die  academischen 
Schiiler  vom  Janner  1738  bis  Juli  1785' 

19.  Ignaz  von  Born,  Briefe  iiher  Mineralogische  Gegeyistiinde  .  .  .  (Frankfurt:  Johann  Jacob 
Ferber,  1774),  227. 

20.  John  Andre,  William  Berczy,  n.  146.  Ignaz  von  Born  also  was  editor  of  the  Masonic 
joutnal,  Physikalische  Arheiten  der  eintriichngen  Freunde  in  W'/cw. 

21.  The  Totenbeschauprotokoll  (coroner's  record)  for  1772  in  the  Wiener  Stadt-  und  Land- 
esarchiv notes  that  he  suffered  a  stroke  and  that  the  family  then  lived  in  the  "large  house  on  the 
Kohlmarkt,"  directly  across  from  the  Impetial  palace.  Copy  of  the  coroner's  record  courtesy  of 
Dr.  Ferdinand  OpII. 

22.  On  February  23,  1773,  Christian  Hieronymus,  Maria  Susanna.  Johann  Ludwig  and 
Maria  Eleonora  were  not  yet  of  age.  Haus-,  Hof-  und  Staats-Archiv  in  Vienna.  RHR  132/1  Tes- 
tamente  Sperr-u.  Verlassenschaften  MOL  -  MOLL  (henceforth  cited  as  HFiScA).  I  am  very 
grateful  to  Dr.  Leopold  Auer  of  the  Archive  for  his  extensive  assistance  in  finding  extant 
records  and  references  to  Bernhard  Albrecht  Moll.  Without  his  help  I  would  not  have  been 
able  to  assemble  the  hitherto  unknown  facts  on  Bernhard  Moll's  early  life  and  career. 

23.  At  Johanna  Moll's  death  in  1791,  her  husband's  estate  was  still  owed  the  substantial 
sum  of  11,361  fl  (gulden)  and  24  kreurzer.  HHStA,  RHR  132/2  Testamente  Sperr-u.  Verlassen- 
schaften MOL  -  MOLL  1793-95,  fol.  3v,  4r,  igr.  Moll  will  and  probate  records  at  the  HHStA, 
RHR  132/2,  Testamente  Sperr-  und  Verlassenschaften,  dated  31  March  I79-- 

24.  HHStA,  Oberhofmeisteramt,  Sonderreihe  82,  Pensionsbewilligung  of  October  8,  1777. 
Maria  Theresa  also  agreed  to  pay  for  the  tuition  of  Johann  Ludwig  Bernhard  Moll  at  the  Im- 
perial Military  Academy.  This  youngest  Moll  son,  whom  his  mother  induced  to  convert  to 
Catholicism,  became  a  sur\'eyor  and  mappeur  inA  also  studied  art  at  the  .Academy  of  Fine  Arts 
in  Vienna  in  later  lite. 

2s.  HHStaA,  RHR.  OR.  699. 

26.  Chief  Chamberlain  Count  von   Rosenberg  to  Joseph   IL   HHSlV   O.Kaj\.  Akten 


JOURNAL    OF    EARLY    SOUTHERN    DECORATIVE    ARTS  SUMMER    1995 


1777-1780,  Number  32/1780.  The  protracted  illness  may  have  been  a  form  of  "cavitary"  tuber- 
culosis, a  scourge  at  the  time  both  in  Europe  and  in  Charleston.  I  am  indebted  to  Darius  G. 
Ornston.  M.D.,  for  information  on  the  medical  practices  of  the  time.  Cf.  also  The  Merck 
Manual  of  Diagnosis  and  Therapy.  9th  ed.  (Merck,  1956),  1535;  and  W.A.D.  Anderson,  M.D., 
Synopsis  ofPatholog)/,  3d  ed.  (St.  Louis:  C.V.  Mosby,  1952),  96-101. 

27.  HHStA,  6B,  O.Ka.A.  Akten  1777-1780.  No.  32/1780;  and  O.Ka.A.  134:  1780  bis  1781. 
II  54:  "Expeditiones  in  Mense  Marty  1780.  N.  32  der  Abfertigung  des  Moll  N.  162." 

28.  Decree  number  246  dated  April  2,  1780,  and  signed  by  Chief  Chamberlain  Count  von 
Rosenberg.  HHStA,  6B  O.Ka.A.  Akten  1777-1780,  N  103/780.  Moll's  petition  to  be  released 
from  military  service  because  of  his  appointment  is  in  the  Kriegsarchiv  (War  Archives),  Vien- 
na, HKR.  1780  D  io6s. 

29.  HHStA,  O.Ka.A.,  Karton  6,  No.  99/i^So,  fol.  S9v,  6or;  Oberhofmeisteramt  Sonderrei- 
he  176,  Expedition  Matters. 

30.  Number  35  (August  29,  1780).  The  two-page  advertisement  and  the  full-page  engraving 
are  not  paginated  and  appear  after  page  560  of  the  paper.  The  etching  measures  7.4  x  s.i  inch- 
es. For  a  copy  of  Moll's  advertisement  and  the  etching,  I  am  grateful  to  Dr.  Ferdinand  Opll. 

31.  Originally  the  expedition  was  to  circle  the  globe  and  visit  the  Caribbean,  the  Americas, 
the  South  Seas,  India,  and  the  Cape  of  Good  Hope  at  the  southern  tip  of  Africa.  The  itinerary 
of  the  expedition  was  subsequently  curtailed. 

32.  Otto  Nowotny:  "Die  Forschungs-  und  Sammelreise  des  Nicolaus  J.  Jacquin  m  die 
Karibik  und  zu  den  Kusten  Venezuelas  und  Kolumbiens  1755-1759"  (Nicholas  J.  [acquin's  Re- 
search and  Collectmg  Trip  in  the  Caribbean  and  on  the  coast  of  Venezuela  and  Columbia, 
i755-'759).  in  Elisabeth  Zeilinger,  ed.,  Osterreich  und  die  Neue  Welt:  Symposium  in  der  Oster- 
reichischen  Nationalhiblwthek  (Austria  and  the  New  World:  Symposium  of  the  Austrian  Na- 
tional Library)  Biblos-Schrtften  160  (Vienna:  Austrian  National  Library,  1993),  89-94.  Also: 
Helga  Huhnel,  "Botanische  Sammelreisen  nach  Amerika  im  18.  Jahrhundert"  (Botanical  Col- 
lectmg Voyages  to  America  in  the  Eighteenth  Century),  in  Franz  Wawrik  et  al.,  eds..  Die  Neue 
Welt:  Osterreich  und  die  Erforschung  Amerikas  (The  New  World:  Austria  and  the  Exploration 
of  America),  (Vienna:  Austrian  National  Library,  1992),  61-77. 

33.  The  "k.k.  Theresianische  und  Savojische  Ritterakademie, "  named  after  Empress  Maria 
Theresa,  was  a  renowned  military  academy  for  noblemen. 

34.  Italics  added.  It  is  not  clear  when  or  why  he  resigned  from  this  position. 

35.  Original  petition  by  Bernhard  Moll  addressed  to  His  Majesty,  no  date.  ONB,  Hand- 
schriftensammlung,  SR  176,  fol.  1-48,  20  r.,v. 

36.  HHStA,  OMeA  SR  176,  fol.  6  v. 

37.  Cf  Emperor  Joseph  II's  lengthy  reply  in  the  margin  of  Vice  Chancellor  Cobenzl  letter 
of  November  22,  1784.  HHStA,  OMeA  SR  176  XXVIII,  fol.  37-39,  discussed  below. 

38.  The  name  appears  with  varying  phonetic  spellings  both  in  European  and  American 
documents  (Stubitz,  Stupitch,  Stupicz,  Stupics,  etc.).  I  have  adopted  the  spelling  commonly 
used  in  Vienna.  The  names  of  other  expedition  members  show  similar  variations. 

39.  Huhnel,  66;  and  HHStA,  OMeA  SR  176  fol.  18. 

40.  Bredemeyer  also  was  a  Freemason.  Stupicz  notes  in  his  daily  lournal  on  27  December 
1783  that  Bredemeyer  "went  to  his  Freema,son  function"  in  Charleston.  Stupicz's  journal  is  in 
the  ONB,  Handschriftenabreilung,  Cod.  ser.  n.  3794,  part  3,  fol.  85. 

41.  HHSta,  OMeA  SR  176,  fol.  6  v. 

42.  On  June  15,  1784,  he  wrote  from  Charleston  to  Vienna:  "The  rwo  gardeners  are  begin- 
ning to  act  more  and  more  according  to  their  initial  delusion  and  as  if  they  had  to  accomplish 
a  separate  and  entirely  independent  task."  ONB,  Cod.  Ser.  n.  3517,  fol.  3-^  v. 


CHARLESTON    S    DRAWING    MASTER    BERNARD    ALBRECHT    MOLL 


43-  Also  spelled  Bolts,  Boltz. 

44.  Memo  of  Ignaz  von  Born,  dated  June  23,  1782.  HHStA,  OMeA  SR  176,  fol.  7  r,  v. 

45.  Born  to  Cobenzl.  June  29,  1782, HHStA,  OMeA  SR  176,  fol.  6  r.,v.;  9  r.v.;  Cobenzl  to 
Emperor  Joseph  II,  August  3,  1782,  HHStA,  OMeA  SR  176  XXVIII,  10  r.,  v.;  Born  to  Cobenzl, 
August  5,  1782,  HHStA,  OMeA  SR  176,  fol.  22  v. 

46.  HHStA,  OMeA  SR  176,  tol.  30  r.;  also  Kabinettsprotokolle  der  Kabinetskanzlei,  vol.  21 
(1782),  p.  984,  N.  141. 

47.  After  Mrs.  Moll's  death  in  1792  the  document  became  significant  because  Bernhard's 
last  letter  to  his  family  was  from  Charleston,  dated  m  the  month  of  December,  1786.  ONB, 
RHR  132/2. 

48.  ONB,  Cod.  Ser.  n.  3794,  part  3,  fol.  76-Si  v. 

49.  The  first  known  map  of  inland  Carolina  was  produced  by  Johann  Lederer  durmg  the 
last  of  his  thtee  expeditions  along  the  Appalachians  in  1669-1670.  The  geographer  and  cartog- 
rapher Herman  Moll  subsequently  published  maps  ot  the  American  Southeast  before  his  death 
in  1732.  A  number  of  maps  of  the  Carolinas  were  published  in  the  1780s.  See  P.  Lee  Phillips,  A 
List  of  Maps  of  America  in  the  Library  of  Congress  (Washington:  Government  Printing  Office, 
1901),  820-21. 

50.  Perhaps  after  General  George  Monk  (or  Monck),  Duke  ot  Albemarle  (1608-1670),  or 
General  Robert  Monckton  (1726-1782). 

51.  ONB,  Cod.  Ser.  n.  3794,  part  3,  fol.  i.  According  to  John  Andre  (1977),  the  captam  may 
h.ive  been  the  American  naval  officer  Joshua  Barney  (1759-1818). 

52.  ONB,  Cod.  Ser.  n.  3794,  part  3,  fol.  6  v. 

53.  ONB,  Cod.  Ser.  n.  3794,  part  3,  fol.  7  r. 

54.  ONE,  Cod.  Ser.  n,  3517,  fol,  19  r,,  v.  for  gracious  assistance  in  obtaining  a  copy  of  this 
letter  and  of  many  other  relevant  documenrs  m  the  manuscript  collection  of  the  Austrian  Na- 
tional Library,  I  am  very  much  indebted  to  the  ditector.  Dr.  Eva  Irblich. 

55.  HHStA,  OMeA  SR  176  XXVIII,  fol.  37-40,  r.,v.  Sub|ects  of  the  crown  needed  permis- 
sion to  emigrate. 

56.  Helga  Hiihnel,  "Kaiserliche  "Gartnergesellen'  bereisen  Amerika"  (Imperial  "Gardener- 
Journeymen"  Visit  America),  in  Osterreich  und die  Neue  Welt.  Symposion  in  der  Osterreichischen 
NattonalhMiothek,  Elisabeth  Zeilinger,  ed.  (Vienna:  Osterreichische  Nationalbibhothek. 
1993),  95  and  n.l. 

57.  On  board  ship  Matter,  Srupicz,  and  Moll  dined  at  the  captain's  table.  While  the  gar- 
deners ate  meager  fare  with  the  crew  and  "nearly  starved  to  death"  (ONB,  Cod.  Ser.  n.  3517, 
fol.  14  and  in  Moll's  letter  to  Born,  fol.  19  r),  Marter  complained  that  they  "almost  never  were 
served  anything  other  than  meat"  (ONB,  Cod.  Ser.  n.  3794,  part  3,  fol.  7  r.).  Once  in  South 
Carolina,  Stupicz  notes  on  January  3,  1784  in  his  daily  journal:  "The  gardeners,  especially  the 
larger  one,  complained  about  the  salary  inequit)'  and  we  quarreled.  Since  he  wouldn't  stop 
talking  1  gave  in  to  his  pride  and  said  nothing,  I  cooked  the  last  of  our  provisions."  ONB, 
Cod.  Ser.  n.  3794,  part  3,  fol.  85  v, 

58.  Andre  and  Froeschle,  143. 

59.  ONB,  Cod.  ser.  n.  3794,  part  3,  fol.  82. 

60.  ONB,  Cod.  ser.  n.  3794,  part  3,  fol.  82  v.  Stupicz  was  apparently  required  to  maintain 
a  daily  journal  while  away  from  Marter,  because  his  record  begins  with  a  note  that  he  and  Boos 
took  leave  from  Marter,  and  it  ends  with  Matter's  arrival  in  Charleston  on  Januar\'  16,  1784. 

61.  ONB,  Cod.  ser.  n.  3794,  part  3,  fol.  83  r.  See  .ilso  Henry  A.  M.  Smith,  "The  Town  ot 
Dofchester,  in  South  Carolina,"  The  South  Carolina  Historical  and  Genealogical  MagazineW.  i 
(1905),  62-95:  "On  December  i,  1781,  Col.  Wade  Hampton  advanced  against  Dorchester.  The 


86  JOURNAL    OF    EARLY    SOUTHERN    DECORATIVE    ARTS  SUMMER    I995 


British  garrison  of  400  infantry  and  150  cavalry  diJ  not  await  his  attack,  but  during  the  night 
destroyed  everything,  threw  their  cannon  into  the  river  and  retreated  to  Charles  Town,  and 
Dorchester  passed  finally  under  the  control  ot  the  American  forces "  (84-8S).  Apparently  the 
town  had  not  been  rebuilt  two  years  later. 

62.  The  term  is  applicable  to  any  member  of  the  reptilian  order  Crocodilm.  Based  on  char- 
acteristics ot  the  head  and  skull,  the  American  crocodile  native  to  the  southern  United  States  is 
now  called  by  the  term  "alligator." 

63.  January  6,  1784;  ONB,  Cod.  ser.  n.  3794.  part  3.  fol.  8s  v. 

64.  ONB,  Cod.  ser.  n.  3794,  part  3,  fol.  84  v. 

65.  They  visited  him  on  December  20,  21,  22,  twice  on  Dec.  23,  and  on  Dec.  31.  ONB, 
Cod.  ser.  n.  3794,  part  3,  fol.  84-85  r. 

66.  One,  Cod.  Ser.  n.  3794,  part  3,  fol.  86  v. 

67.  ONB,  Cod.  Ser.  n.  3517,  fol.  37  r. 

68.  ONB,  Cod.  Ser.  n.  3517,  fol.  38  r. 

69.  ONB,  Cod.  Ser.  n.  3517,  fol.  si  r. 

70.  ONB,  Cod.  Ser.  n.  3517,  fol.  78  r.  Marter  had  also  ordered  Stupicz  to  return  with  the 
first  transport,  but  apparently  he  also  defied  the  order  because  Bredemeyer  arrived  alone  in  Vi- 
enna with  a  shipment  of  the  collected  plants,  animals,  and  seeds. 

71.  Stupicz  also  remained  in  Charleston.  Born  in  Transylvania,  an  area  that  once  belonged 
to  Hungary  and  is  now  part  of  Romania,  he  became  a  member  of  the  Roman  Catholic  church 
in  Charleston,  died  on  August  20,  1794,  and  was  buried  in  St.  Mary's  Cemetery.  Extant 
records  show  that  he  practiced  medicine  in  Charleston  successfully  and  had  filed  several  law- 
suits to  recover  payment  for  his  services  and  medicines.  One  ot  his  patients  in  arrears  with  pay- 
ments was  the  aged  Lutheran  pastor  Christian  Theus.  Johann  Jacob  KalckotFen,  a  friend  of 
Stupicz  and  administrator  of  his  estate  after  his  death,  collected  outstanding  debts  and  paid  for 
a  memorial  in  St.  Mary's  Cemetery.  This  tombstone  is  now  one  of  the  oldest  in  that  burial 
ground.  For  information  on  the  burial  site  and  permission  to  photograph  the  tombstone  1  am 
grateful  to  the  Rev.  Msgr.  John  A.  Simonin. 

72.  HHStA,  OMeA,  SR  176,  fol.  40  v. 

73.  HHStA,  OMeA  SR  176  XXVIII,  fol.  37-39.  f-v. 

74.  The  Emperor's  dictated,  personally  signed  reply  is  in  the  left  margin  ot  Document  no. 
OMeA  SR  176  XXVIII,  beginning  on  fol.  39  t. 

75.  Coblenzl  was  responding  to  the  complaint  that  Moll  "had  done  very  little  painting  for 
Marter  and  had  occupied  himself  mostly  with  other  work  for  his  private  gain,"  which  was  not- 
ed in  the  left  margin  of  fol.  31  r.  ONB,  Cod.  Ser.  n.  3794,  part  i. 

76.  ONB,  Cod.  Ser.  n.  3794,  part  i,  fol.  30  v-31  r. 

77.  South-Carolina  State  Gazette  and  General  Advertiser.  Charleston,  23  November  1784,  1-3. 

78.  South-Carolina  State  Gazette  and  Daily  Advertiser,  Charleston,  25  February  1785,  2-1. 

79.  Helene  M.  Kastinger  Riley,  "German  Romanticism  in  Old  Charles  Towne?  Rediscov- 
ering William  Henry  Timrod,  Bookbinder-Poet."  South  Atlantic  Review  59,  i  (January  1994), 
67—85;  and  Johannes  Strohschank:  Deutsches  Drama  am  Charleston  Theatre  ngs-iS6i.  M.A. 
thesis.  University  ot  South  Carolina.  1977,  24. 

80.  Hermannus  Moll  died  in  1732.  His  map  ot  the  British  Empire  in  America  dates  to 
1708,  his  map  of  Carolina  was  made  in  1721.  The  fact  that  he  produced  a  map  showing  the  set- 
tled areas  around  Charleston  in  1711,  and  a  plan  ot  Port  Royal  harbor  in  Carolina  in  the  year  ot 
his  death,  leads  one  to  suspect  that  he  resided  in  or  around  Charleston  at  the  time. 

81.  Columbian  Herald,  Charleston  County,  S.C.,  (no  issue  date,  ptevious  issue  is  7  Septem- 
ber 1785,  following  issue  is  12  September  1785),  3-4 


CHARLESTON    S    DRAWING    MASTER    BERNARD    ALBRECHT    MOLL 


82.  The  City  Gazette  and  The  Daily  Advertiser,  Charleston,  19  November  1787,  3-2 

83.  South  Carolina  Department  of  Archives  and  History,  Citizenship  Book.  1784-18)^, 
Misc.  Records  vol.  Q  1788-1839,  p.  11.  The  term  "subject  of  the  Emperor  of  Germany"  is  am- 
biguous. Moll  and  his  father  were  born  in  Germany,  but  Bernhard  was  raised  in  Austria  from 
infancy  and  Joseph  11  of  the  Austro-Hungarian  Empire  certainly  considered  him  an  Austrian 
subject.  Still,  the  Molls  were  diplomats  to  the  Aulic  Council  in  Vienna  and  Bernhard  Moll 
could  easily  have  argued  that  he  was  a  German,  not  an  Austrian  citizen. 

84.  It  reads:  "I  give  &  bequeath  the  whole  of  my  Estate  real  &  personal  which  I  possess  in 
the  State  of  South  Carolina  to  Edward  Lighrwood,  In  Trust  for  the  Wench  now  living  with 
me  known  by  the  Name  of  Hagar,  appointing  him  the  said  Edward  Lightwood  my  sole  Execu- 
tor, who  is  hereby  directed  to  sell  or  dispose  of  the  same  or  m  any  other  wise  to  act  in  the  Pre- 
misses as  he  may  think  most  advantageous.  Witness  my  Hand  and  Seal  this  twenty  fifth  day  of 
June  one  thousand  seven  hundred  and  eighty  eight."  The  will  is  signed  and  witnessed  by 
Samuel  Baker  and  Robert  Seabrook.  South  Carolina  Department  ot  Archives,  Charleston  Will 
Transcripts,  vol.  22,  p.  302.  Recorded  in  original  Will  Book  "B"  1786-1793,  p.  208. 

8s.   The  City  Gazette  or  The  Daily  Advertiser.  Charleston,  9  September  1788,  3-2 

86.  The  City  Gazette  or  The  Daily  Advertiser.  Charleston,  12  November  1788,  2-3 

87.  Charleston  County,  S.C.,  Inventories.  Vol.  B,  1787-1793.  p.  H4-  16  February  1789;  and 
State  Gazette  ofS.C.  Charleston,  S.C.,  23  February  1789.  1-4. 

88.  Probate  record  for  Johanna  Moll,  HHStA,  RHR  132/2  Testamente  Sperr-u.  Verlassen- 
schaften  MOL  -  MOLL,  dated  March  31,  1792. 

89.  For  the  description  of  the  originals  m  the  bound  volume  and  for  study  prints  from  a 
microfilm  I  am  indebted  to  Mary  Allodi.  curator  oi  the  Canadiana  Department,  Royal  On- 
tario Museum,  Toronto,  Ont. 

90.  See  Margaret  Simons  Middleton:  Jeremiah  Theus:  Colonial  Artist  of  Charles  Town,  rev. 
ed.  (Columbia:  University  of  South  Carolina  Press,  1991). 

91.  Dorothy  Smith  Berkeley  and  Edmund  Berkeley,  Dr.  Alexander  Garden  of  Charles  Town 
(Chapel  Hill:  University  of  North  Carolina  Press,  1969),  312-13. 

92.  Caroline  T.  Moore,  comp.  and  ed.:  Abstracts  of  Wills  of  Charleston  District.  S.C 
ijSj-iSoo  (Columbia,  S.C:  R.  L.  Bryan,  1974),  247-48. 

93.  N.  Louise  Bailey  and  Elizabeth  Ivev  Cooper,  Biographical  Directory  of  the  South  Caroli- 
na House  of  Representatives,  vol.  3  ,  i — s-i-90  (Columbia:  University  of  South  Carolina  Press, 
1981),  297. 

94.  During  the  Revolutionan'  War,  Purcell  had  been  chaplain  to  the  second  South  Caroli- 
na Regiment  commanded  by  Moultrie,  and  began  to  officiate  at  St.  Michael's  upon  the  evacu- 
ation bv  the  Bfitish,  Decembet  14,  1782.  Although  he  received  a  salary,  he  was  not  officially 
elected  Rector  until  April  2,  1784.  The  Rev.  Henry  Purcell  died  March  24,  1802.  Year  Book  of 
the  City  of  Charleston  1886.  p.  300. 

95.  Charleston  Times.  12  December.  1804  (italics  added).  According  to  his  advertisement  in 
the  Gazette,  he  was  a  portrait  painter  from  Boston  who  had  arrived  m  Charleston  in  Novem- 
ber 1800.  City  Gazette  and  Daily  Advertiser.  2  December  1800. 

96.  City  Gazette  and  Daily  Advertiser,  7  February  1807. 

97.  Charleston  Times,  22  December  1810. 

98.  Charleston  Courier,  16  January  1810. 

99.  For  the  discussion  of  how  the  silhouettes  reflect  fashions  of  this  period.  I  am  indebted 
to  Colleen  Callahan,  curator  of  costumes  and  textiles  at  the  Valentine  Museum,  Richmond, 
Virginia. 

100.  ONB,  C^od.  Ser.  n.  351^,  fol.  38  r.;  and  ONB.  Cod.  Set.  n.  3794.  part  i. 

loi.  ONB.  OMeA  SR  176  XXVIII.  Report  to  His  Maiesn-.  fol.  3--39.  right  margin. 


JOURNAL    OF    EARLY    SOUTHERN    DECORATIVE    ARTS  S  U  N1  M  E  R    1995 


Research  Notes 


New  Discoveries  in  a 
Piedmont  North  Carolina  Chest-on-Frame  Group 

BRADFORD    L.    RAUSCHENBERG 

In  his  article  "American  Vernacular  Furniture  and  the  North  Car- 
olina Backcountry,"  which  appeared  in  the  November  1994  issue  of 
the  Journal,  Michael  H.  Lewis  studied  a  group  of  chests-on-frame 
produced  in  the  piedmont  North  Carolina  counties  of  Rowan  and 
Randolph.  Lewis  presented  the  group  as  evolving  from  an  unknown 
shop  in  Rowan  County  c.  1795;  a  later  subgroup  that  emerged  in 
Randolph  County  was  probably  produced  until  the  Civil  War. 

Soon  after  the  publication  of  Lewis's  article,  several  pieces  of  fur- 
niture relating  to  this  group  have  come  to  light.  Two  identical 
chests-on-frame  have  been  discovered,  with  separate  family  histories, 
that  represent  a  high-style  variation  of  the  Rowan  group.  One  chest 
descended  in  the  Jonathan  and  Elias  Barber  family,  which  setded  in 
Rowan  County  in  1794  (fig.  i).  The  other,  identical  to  the  Barber 
chest,  is  still  in  Rowan  County  and  has  a  history  of  descent  in  the 
Alexander  Long/ Andrew  Murphy  family  through  an  1850s  marriage. 
In  many  respects  these  chests  conform  to  Lewis's  tj'pe  II;  each  has  an 
arched  skirt  with  central  pendant,  as  well  as  a  bonnet  drawer.  The 
way  that  the  drawer  supports  are  mortised  through  the  back  is  iden- 
tical to  the  Rowan  group.The  striking  variations  these  examples  ex- 
hibit include  the  tapered  reeded  feet  and  the  walnut  veneer  on  the 
drawer  fronts  and  the  front  skirt.  A  number  of  internal  construction 


I.  Chest-oii-friuuc.  Rowan  County  type  11.  piedmont  North  Carolina,  c.  iSl^. 
Wahiiit  a>id  ivahiut  veneer  drawer  fronts:  tulip  poplar  and  yellow  pine  sec- 
ondary HOA  44  'I. ".  W'OA  jS  Vs ".  DOA  19  'I-  "■  MRF  S-2088-'.  Courtesy  of  Estate 
Antiques,  Charleston,  South  Carolina. 


90 


JOURNAL    OF    EARLY    SOUTHERN    DECORATIVE    ARTS 


SUMMER    199s 


details  also  difter.  Tulip  poplar  drawer  linings  and  yellow  pine  draw- 
er supports  are  a  variation  on  the  exclusive  use  of  yellow  pine  in  the 
other  known  examples  from  Rowan  and  Randolph  counties.  The 
four  horizontal  back  boards  are  paneled  into  the  top  and  sides  and 
have  the  bottom  board  pegged  into  the  case  base;  a  centrally  placed 
wrought  nail  secures  the  pegging.  The  drawer  fronts  have  less  than 
full  applied  cockbeading,  the  beveled  bottoms  are  held  by  front  and 
side  grooves  and  are  not  pinned  to  the  back,  and  the  sides  extend 
slighdy  past  the  back,  apparently  to  adjust  the  stopping  depth.  To 
flirther  ensure  the  fit,  a  small  vertical  block  was  applied  to  each 
drawer  back  corner.  There  are  no  dustboards.  The  case  has  a  cove 
molding  at  the  top,  and  the  base  frame  has  a  small  ogee  molding. 

While  neither  of  these  two  chests  is  dated,  the  accurate  rendering 
of  the  reeded  feet  certainly  suggests  a  date  in  the  i8ios,  even  allowing 
for  the  retention  of  styles  in  the  Backcountry.  The  importance  of 
these  two  chests-on-frame  lies  in  how  their  attentiveness  to  design 
reflects  a  style  more  in  tune  with  the  period  than  most  of  the  Rowan 
chests.  Although  their  maker  is  unidentified,  he  obviously  was  asso- 
ciated with  the  Rowan  shop  and  had  a  client  or  clients  who  de- 
manded the  newest  style  in  reeded  feet.  Though  avant-garde  for 
Rowan  County,  this  new  design  suits  the  traditional  chest-on-frame 
style. 

The  other  example  of  the  group  Lewis  discusses  is  a  painted  blan- 
ket chest-on-frame  of  the  Randolph  type  II  (fig.  2).  While  all  other 
known  examples  of  the  chest-on-frame  form  exhibit  walnut  as  the 
primary  wood,  this  chest  has  yellow  pine  and  tulip  poplar  as  the  case 
woods  and  walnut,  tulip  poplar,  and  yellow  pine  as  the  frame  woods. 
Its  construction  features  are  consistent  with  the  Randolph  type  II: 
molding  at  the  front  and  ends  of  the  lid,  with  cut  nails;  half  dove- 
tails visible  on  the  ends  at  front  and  on  the  back  at  the  ends;  case 
and  frame  possibly  separable  originally,  but  now  pinned  with  cut 
nails  through  the  case  bottom  into  a  board  that  is  mortice-lapped 
front  to  rear  into  the  top  of  the  frame  rabbet.  No  lock  had  ever  been 


RESEARCH    NOTES 


2.  Chcit-on-friime.  Randolph  County  type  II.  North  Carolina,  iSlo-lS^O.  Chest: 
yellow  pine  and  tulip  poplar,  painted  with  a  red  wash  with  pattern-assisted  de- 
signs of  black  half-circles  with  additional  inner  dark  red  half  circles  on  sides  at 
front  and  base,  and  white  diamonds  on  front  board  at  top  and  sides.  Frame: 
skirt  front  of  tulip  poplar  with  a  red  wash;  the  walnut  ends  and  walnut  feet  are 
natural  and  the  back  ts  yellow  pine.  HOA  26  l"(?),  WOA  42  //',  DOA  18".  MRF 
S-2og26.  Private  collection. 


92 


JOURNAL    OF    EARLY    SOUTHERN    DECORATIVE    ARTS 


SUMMER    1995 


installed.  When  discovered,  two  inches  ot  the  teet  had  been  lost.  Its 
restoration  was  accurate  and  based  upon  known  examples  oi  Ran- 
dolph county  type  II. 

This  blanket  chest  has  a  history  of  being  collected  in  the  Lenoir 
area  ot  North  Carolina  north  of  Randolph  County.  This  example  is 
clearly  a  variation  oi  the  Randolph  type  II;  its  painted  decoration 
probably  represents  client  taste. 

These  examples  that  vary  Irom  the  norm  provide  information 
that  at  first  may  seem  to  confuse  the  picture,  but  ultimately  can  il- 
lustrate connections  and  help  clarify  the  origins  of  this  chest-on- 
frame  group  from  Rowan  and  Randolph  counties.  Their  discovery 
clearly  demonstrates  the  on-going  nature  of  research  and  the  value  of 
communication  as  we  continue  to  refine  our  understanding  of  arti- 
san practices  in  the  past. 


RESEARCH    NOTES 


93 


Book  Reviews 


Adapting  to  a  New  World 
English  Society  in  the  Seventeenth-Century  Chesapeake 

JAMES    HORN 

Chapel  Hill:  University  of  North  Carolina  Prcsi  tor  the  Institute  of  Early  American  His- 
tory and  Culture,  1994.  Pp.  xviii  &  462.  14  maps  and  graphs,  9  halftones.  Cloth,  $55.00. 
ISBN  0-8078-2137-3. 

In  Adapting  to  a  Neiv  World,  James  Horn  writes  about  similarities 
and  connections,  the  "major  continuities  between  lite  in  the  Old 
World  and  the  New."  While  he  does  not  minimize  the  effect  of  ei- 
ther the  new  American  environment  or  the  disparities  in  material 
conditions,  he  focuses  on  the  first  phase  oi  the  familiar  Anglicization 
model  and  argues  that  "the  fabric  of  English  society  and  culture  was 
maintained  by  the  transfer  of  English  values,  norms,  and  attitudes" 

(p-  427)- 

Horn  nuances  his  argument.  Colonists  did  not  expect  the  Chesa- 
peake to  be  a  mirror  image  of  England  (p.  426),  and  no  specific  local 
English  culture  was  reproduced.  There  are  brief  but  suggestive  allu- 
sions to  features  oi  the  English  experience  that  were  missing  from 
the  Chesapeake,  such  as  the  bustle  of  towns,  the  compactness  of  vil- 
lages, the  presence  ot  antiquity  in  buildings  and  monuments,  and 
the  existence  of  certain  social  groups.  Although  Horn  carefully  states 
that  he  has  limited  his  work  to  the  transfer  of  culture  from  England 
to  the  Chesapeake,  his  lack  of  attention  to  Native  Americans  and 


95 


African  slaves  gives  readers  only  a  partial  view  of  the  population  of 
Virginia  and  Maryland. 

The  pictures  ot  England  Horn  uses  are  drawn  trom  case  studies  of 
the  Vale  oi  Berkeley  and  central  Kent.  He  identifies  the  emigrants, 
describes  the  communities  they  left,  and  indicates  the  local  factors, 
especially  poverty,  that  pushed  them  across  the  Atlantic.  In  the 
Chesapeake  he  offers  enough  demographic  statistics  and  facts  about 
tobacco  growing  and  crop  diversification  to  support  his  contention 
that  immigrants  saw  the  region  "in  terms  of  the  commodities  it 
would  in  time  yield"  (p.  127).  Concentrating  his  attention  on  the 
English  settlers  in  Lower  Norfolk  and  Landcaster  Count)'  in  Vir- 
ginia and  in  St.  Mary's  County,  Maryland,  he  stresses  the  impor- 
tance of  kinship  and  friendship  in  the  networks  of  daily  living,  agri- 
cultural work,  and  the  establishment  oi  local  and  provincial  offices. 

Following  this  general  background  come  five  thematic  chapters  in 
which  he  discusses  attitudes  toward  family,  sex,  marriage,  and  com- 
munity; the  world  oi  work;  the  social  order,  crime,  and  rebellion; 
the  spiritual  world  of  organized  religion  and  popular  belief  and  the 
topic  that  may  be  oi  greatest  interest  to  readers  of  the  Jourriiil,  "The 
House  and  Home:  The  Domestic  Environment."  Horn  helpfully 
positions  his  work  among  that  of  other  scholars;  but  regrettably,  the 
few  unimaginative  illustrations  reveal  the  author's  lack  of  interest  in 
visual  or  material  sources.  In  the  chapters  on  work  and  material  cul- 
ture, he  treats  differences  between  conditions  in  England  and  the 
Chesapeake  as  more  important  than  similarities  (pp.291— 92). 
Through  indentured  servitude  and  slavery,  labor  in  the  Chesapeake 
became  commodified  in  ways  that  were  unacceptable  in  England  (p. 
268).  Servants  were  regarded  as  a  species  of  property,  their  routines 
of  work  defined  by  and  compensated  for  according  to  the  "Custom 
of  the  Country"  (p.  269). 

Horn  is  in  agreement  with  other  scholars  in  his  statement  that 
"throughout  the  region,  domestic  conditions  were  uniformly  basic. 
The  simplicity  and  crudeness  of  agrarian  society  and  the  absence  of 


96  JOURNAL    OF    EARLY    SOUTHERN    DECORATIVE    ARTS        SUMMER    19  9  5 


ways  of  life  taken  for  granted  in  England  must  have  been  apparent 
to  all  new  arrivals"  (p.  434).  He  offers  worthwhile  comparisons  be- 
tween the  impermanent  buildings  of  the  Chesapeake  and  squatters' 
cottages  in  marginal  lands  in  England.  However,  writing  about  the 
way  planters  moved  dwellings  and  tobacco  houses  from  place  to 
place  as  the  soil  wore  out,  Horn  seems  not  to  understand  the  imper- 
manence  argument  that  deferring  housing  improvemets  was  an  in- 
vestment strategy  and  possibly  a  response  to  the  brevity  of  most  peo- 
ples lives.  Although  he  mentions  Green  Spring  and  Bacon's  Castle  as 
exceptions  (p.  306),  he  explicidy  states  that  there  was  no  use  of  met- 
ropolitan building  styles  in  the  Chesapeake.  In  fact,  new  archaeology 
and  reassessment  of  old  sites  are  turning  up  additional  evidence  for 
more  sophisticated  houses,  such  as  Arlington  on  the  lower  Eastern 
Shore  and  several  houses  on  Jamestown  Island. 

Horn's  evidence  for  furnishings  comes  exclusively  from  invento- 
ries. While  he  summarizes  previous  work  adequately  and  raises  some 
worthwhile  questions,  conceptually  he  does  not  advance  our  under- 
standing of  the  subject  of  living  conditions  and  practices.  For  all 
their  problems,  probate  inventories  clearly  tell  that  furnishings  were 
meager,  and  adjectives  indicate  their  poor  quality  either  of  manufac- 
ture or  condition.  Does  the  scarcity  of  skilled  labor  and  surplus  in- 
come contribute  to  this  picture?  Would  the  many  ships  known  to 
have  brought  furnishings  to  lower  Norfolk  have  carried  enough  do- 
mestic goods  to  provide  a  high  number  of  families  with  a  better 
standard  of  living.^  These  questions  beg  investigation. 

Years  ago  others,  including  this  reviewer,  wrote  about  the  seeming 
sameness  of  the  furniture  in  all  Chesapeake  houses,  which  we  attrib- 
uted to  the  homogeneity  of  society.  Being  rich  meant  having  more, 
not  being  different.  Horn  usefully  asks  whether  having  more  could 
mean  being  different  (pp.  325-27).  Now  that  material  culture  schol- 
ars have  expanded  their  attention  from  numbers  and  patterns  of  dis- 
tribution of  objects  to  issues  of  use  and  behavior,  I  would  like  to 
know  more  about  these  differences.  Although  Horn  tinkers  with  a 


BOOK    REVIEWS 


few  suggestions  about  styles  of  living  and  assemblages  of  objects,  the 
topic  needs  more  work. 

Readers  who  wish  to  take  sides  in  the  debate  over  the  relative  in- 
fluence of  the  culture  ot  Old  England  and  the  environment  of  the 
New  World  in  shaping  the  experiences  of  colonists  in  the  seven- 
teenth-century Chesapeake  will  focus  on  James  Horn's  nuanced 
effort  to  favor  English  heritage.  Those  who  think  the  question  im- 
possible to  answer  are  still  likely  to  appreciate  the  range  and  thor- 
oughness of  his  descriptions  of  English  people  and  their  lives  and  in- 
stitutions on  both  sides  of  the  Atlantic.  Finally,  although  the  book  is 
fat  and  heavy  and  the  type  small,  the  choice  of  paper,  the  overall  de- 
sign, and  the  decision  to  position  notes  at  the  bottom  of  each  page 
make  reading  pleasant. 

BARBARA    G.   CARSON 

The  College  of  William  and  Mary 
and  George  Washington  University 


Pioneers  in  Historical  Archaeology 
Breaking  New  Ground 

STANLEY    SOUTH,   ED. 


New  York  and  London:  Plenum  Press,  1994.  Pp-  xiv  &  233.  2i  black-and-white  pho- 
tographs. Cloth,  $4vOO.  ISBN  0-306-44X11-1. 


In  this  volume  Stanley  South  has  collected  accounts  of  the  origins 
of  historical  archaeology,  told  by  those  who  were  instrumental  in 
that  field's  inception.  As  a  distinct  subdiscipline,  historical  archaeol- 
ogy was  established  at  the  first  meeting  of  the  Society  for  Historical 
Archaeology  in  1967  (I  was  at  that  meeting,  and  remember  it  well). 
Its  roots,  however,  go  back  to  the  1930s  and  before,  when  a  few  indi- 
viduals began  to  take  a  serious  approach  to  "tin-can  archaeology" 


JOllRNAL    OF    EARLY    SOUTHERN    DECORATIVE    ARTS  SUMMER    I995 


and  started  to  explore  the  potential  of  applying  traditional  archaeo- 
logical methods  to  post-Columbian  sites.  As  we  have  seen,  their 
work  was  wildly  successful,  and  today  the  Society  for  Historical  Ar- 
chaeology is  one  of  the  three  largest  archaeological  groups  in  the 
country. 

In  thirteen  chapters,  thirteen  pioneers  of  the  field  tell  the  story  of 
their  involvement.  They  are  all  here:  J.  C.  "Pinky"  Harrington,  John 
Cotter,  Charles  Fairbanks,  and  ten  other  well-known  archaeologists 
who  discuss  how  and  why  they  were  led  to  this  then-new  area  of 
study.  Considering  the  book  as  archaeology  of  archaeology,  a  post- 
processualist  will  find  comfort  in  the  powerful  effect  of  personalities 
and  quirks  oi  fate  that  led  each  early  practitioner  to  particular  sites, 
problems,  and  methods.  Each  chapter  is  a  delight  to  read;  the  editor 
is  to  be  congratulated  on  soliciting  such  personal,  even  intimate  ac- 
counts and  tying  them  together  into  a  coherent  account  of  the  disci- 
pline's history. 

The  first  chapter  is  by  Harrington,  who  discusses  his  beginnings 
at  Jamestown  in  the  1930s.  At  that  time,  and  sometimes  still,  histori- 
cal archaeology  was  trying  to  define  its  own  purpose.  Was  it  to  guide 
reconstruction  and  interpretation  of  historic  sites,  or  was  it  to  be  a 
source  of  information  on  anthropological  problems,  a  source  inde- 
pendent of  the  written  record?  Harrington,  like  most  of  the  contrib- 
utors, tells  his  story  in  a  self-deprecating,  self-critical  style  that  is  sel- 
dom seen  in  young  scholars. 

In  chapter  2,  John  Cotter  provides  a  straightforward  chronologi- 
cal account  of  historical  archaeology's  development,  giving  a  surpris- 
ingly early  (1796)  example  of  a  problem-oriented  excavation  of  an 
historic  site.  This  is  followed  by  a  summary  of  the  principal  accom- 
plishments, along  with  seminal  sites  and  persons,  through  the  early 
part  of  this  century  to  the  establishment  of  the  Society  in  the  1960s. 

The  third  chapter,  one  of  my  favorites,  is  by  J.  O.  Brew.  Jo  Brew 
was  one  of  the  best  writers  in  archaeology,  and  his  account  of  excava- 
tions and  analysis  at  Awatovi  is  a  fascinating  story,  filled  with  per- 


BOOK    REVIEWS 


99 


sonalities  and  incidents.  His  work  reveals  how  much  history  can 
benefit  from  being  fleshed  out  by  archaeology  and  an  anthropologi- 
cal understanding,  in  this  case  involving  Hopi  ethnography. 

Two  chapters,  one  by  Kenneth  Kidd  and  the  other  by  Roderick 
Sprague,  provide  discussion  of  glass  beads  and  their  interpretation. 
Beads  are  to  historic  aboriginal  sites  what  ceramics  are  to  Euro- 
American  sites,  i.e.,  commonly  found  and  vital  for  chronology.  Kidd 
and  Sprague,  working  largely  independently,  were  among  the  first  to 
establish  a  bead  typology.  Carlyle  Smith  writes  oi  his  work  on  gun 
parts  which,  like  beads,  are  a  proven  tool  tor  establishing  a  sites  age 
and  trade  affiliations.  Ed  Jelks  too  demonstrates  how  little  was 
known  even  forty  years  ago  regarding  certain  classes  of  historic  arti- 
facts, including  ceramics.  Jelks  discusses  the  painstaking  work  of  all 
of  these  pioneers  in  establishing  the  basic  knowledge  of  such  com- 
monplace but  significant  detritus.  Hale  Smith's  chapter  is  still  anoth- 
er example,  and  he  refers  to  an  understanding  ol  historic  artifacts  as 
a  "venture  into  the  unknown." 

Contributions  by  John  Griffin,  Charles  Fairbanks,  George  Quim- 
by,  and  Robert  "Stu"  Neitzel  reveal  another  theme  of  the  early  years, 
the  preoccupation  with  connecting  historic  Native  American  sites 
with  recorded  ethnic  groups.  This  is  part  of  a  more  general  pattern, 
a  tendency  to  ask  (and  sometimes  answer)  highly  particularistic 
questions  that  are  more  historical  than  anthropological.  In  reading 
their  chapters,  one  is  reminded  that  Harringtons  question  "What  is 
historical  archaeology? "  has  remained  a  concern  for  all  these  schol- 
ars. 

The  editor  Stanley  South  has  written  about  what  he  has  learned 
from  and  experienced  with  his  archaeological  crews.  All  archaeolo- 
gists have  these  stories,  but  they  are  seldom  reported.  South  sees 
these  shared  experiences  as  worthy  not  only  of  telling,  but  as  a 
source  of  anthropological  information;  an  example  is  the  folk  songs 
of  his  workers  in  South  Carolina. 

Again  and  again,  these  pioneers  mention  early  childhood  experi- 


JOIIRNAL    OF    EARLY    SOUTHERN    DECORATIVE    ARTS  SUMMER    1995 


ences  that  inclined  them  to  sttidy  archaeology.  Some  of  those  events 
can  only  be  seen  as  historical  accidents;  considering  the  strong,  even 
vivid  imprint  these  personalities  have  made  on  historical  archaeolo- 
gy, one  wonders  how  different  the  field  would  be  if  others  had  been 
in  their  stead.  Whether  one  sees  historical  archaeology  as  too  histori- 
cal, too  anthropological,  or  just  right  (and  it  can  be  all  oi  these  at 
times),  this  highly  readable  account  of  its  genesis  is  well  worth  open- 
ing. 

J.    NED    WOODALL 

Wake  Forest  University 


BOOK    REVIEWS 


THE    MUSEUM    OF    EARLY   SOUTHERN    DECORATIVE   ARTS 

Hobart  G.  Cawood,  President,  Old  Salem,  Inc. 

Frank  L.  Horton,  Director  Emeritus 

Sail}'  Gant,  Director  of  Education  and  Special  Events 
Ruth  Brooks,  Associate  in  Education 

Paula  Hooper,  Coordinator  of  Membership  Services 

Paula  Locklair,  Director,  Department  ol  Collections,  and  Curator 

Johanna  Metzgar,  Assistant  Curator  and  Registrar 

Jenniler  Aber,  Collections  Assistant 

Bradford  L.  Rauschenberg,  Director,  Department  of  Research 

Nancy  Bean,  Office  Manager 

Sandra  Hendee,  Prints  and  Slides  Assistant 

Martha  Rowe,  Research  Associate 

Virginia  R.  Southard,  Librarian 

Wesley  Stewart,  Photographer 

Cornelia  Wright,  Editor  of  Publications